


Albatross

by My_Dear_Watson



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, ending spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-16 00:00:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10559944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_Dear_Watson/pseuds/My_Dear_Watson
Summary: After the dust clears and the Tempest crew can take a breather, Sara and Kandros are volunteered to go out exploring on Meridian. Which would be just fine with Sara, if she wasn't into the leader of the militia.





	1. Chapter 1

Sara Ryder was confused.

Really, she had no right to be after the whole Saving The World thing, but damn it, she had _just_ done that and she deserved some free thought that wasn’t about the Archon or Kett or anything of the sort.

Still, it felt wrong that one of her biggest thought processes after she had taken down the Archon was about companionship. After everything she felt like she didn’t deserve said companionship. She figured she needed to be alone forever to keep the Hero status up and going, especially if there were going to be bigger fights in the future. And then it was just whom had caught her attention that sent off a bunch of warning bells in her head. 

But then again, Kandros was… Kandros. And it was very hard to not let her mind wander.

He had been the only entirely open person from the Nexus who was entirely in her corner out of the gate. And he was was at least attractive and kind and god, that _voice_. Two days prior, she was still reeling from the Archon fight. By the time she had reached the meeting place that Addison had chosen to speak with her, Tann, Kesh and Kandros, she was overexerted. She had nearly collapsed just inside the meeting  room when he literally swooped in and taken her arm to steady her.  And then had to go and be perfect and played it off like she had stumbled over a spot on the floor. It was like he had known she would take slight, momentary embarrassment over looking weak after everything, and she was endlessly grateful.

He was such a nauseatingly good person, despite his apparent efforts not to be, and she needed some of that in her mess of a life. The chase was going to be the complicated part, though.

“-And then that’s when the hanar and I had a one night stand… … _Oi, Sara are you even listening_?!”

She snapped out of her reverie and glanced across the table she was sitting at

Gil Brodie stared back at her expectantly. He crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow playfully. “You know I thought I was going to have to come up with more to that story, and that terrified me. Look, I know engineering talk gets dull and your eyes glassed over at least ten minutes after other people’s do, but it is your ship we’re talking about. She needs to recover, just as much as we do.”

“Yeah,” she said absentmindedly, which earned her a light kick under the table. “Ow! Look, I told you before that we’re nearly swimming in credits and resources now. What the Tempest needs, it gets.”

“Now you’re back,” Gil noticed. “Good. And shut it, you barely even felt me kick you!” he countered. “So who’s the lucky lad that you’re all in your head about? Still the King of Exile Island? Because we’ve all said that’s a bad idea, right-“

Sara scoffed. “He’s better than he makes himself out to be, but as I told the others, pretty sure it’s just sex anyway-“

“The bastard had hearts for eyes when we first landed here after we beat the Archon. I doubt it's _just sex_." 

“Shut up!”

Gil took a swig from his beer, and Sara relaxed a bit. She could always at least count on Gil to know when to shut up if he found out he went too far while talking about different topics. And her sex life was already complicated, she didn’t want to think about the details and make it even stranger. The topic seemed to have been dropped after a minute when Gil had gone back to eating whatever the concoction that was supposed to resemble Earth food was that they had been sharing.

She was rescued again when she caught sight of blonde hair and a familiar body shape walking towards them out of the corner of her eye. “Scotty! They let you out already!”

Scott Ryder shrugged and looked away, all painfully feigned guilt. “Might have snuck out when I had a moment. I'm still in recovery, but I need fresh air,” Scott Ryder answered as he joined them. He sat in the remaining chair at the table. “And of course I’m gonna be like everyone and visit the hero of the century!” He nudged her shoulder and let go when she went to stab his hand with her fork. He stopped and turned his attention to Gil. “You know, I’ve seen you around, but we haven’t officially met. Are you… Reyes?” he asked.

Gil stared, then after a moment he let out a bark of a laugh that even he found undignified, if his following expression was anything to judge it by. “No, no, not remotely Reyes. Gil Brodie, at your service. Good to finally meet the other Ryder face to face.”  

Scott  nodded after a moment. “Same to you. Heard a lot about you so far.  I guess I have you to thank for playing brother to her when I was, uh, indisposed.”

Gil  smiled. “Yes, anything for our girl here,” he reached over and pinched Sara’s cheek, which earned his turn with Sara attempting to stab him with her fork. 

Scott laughed. “Yeah, but, seriously man, thank you. We don’t… have that many good people in our lives. It’s good she got you out of the deal. She needs some of that dynamic.”

“My pleasure,” Gil answered.

Sara tried not to pull a face when she picked up on how loaded with innuedo him saying ‘pleasure’ had been. She kicked him under the table for good measure. A moment later she realized that how he had said ‘service’ before had been just as loaded. She concealed a groan  of disgust.

To her horror Scott’s smile turned to a smirk and he opened his mouth to reply.

She was in the process of covering her ears, at least, until another voice interrupted them. 

“There you are! I should’ve known, get back here, Ryder!”

 _Harry_ , Sara recognized the newcomer. _Saved by the pseudo uncle. Go figure._

Scott pointed at her. “ _That_ Ryder?” he asked when Harry finally reached them.

Harry glowered, but there was no animosity behind it. Instead, he merely shoved one hand under Scott’s nearest arm and pulled him up to a standing position.

Scott, to his credit, laughed again and let Harry drag him back towards medbay without another word. 

The remaining pair was silent for a while, and then Gil finally spoke. “Would it be weird if I admitted I would climb your brother like a tree?”

“Ew, Gil! Yes! That’s my brother! My _little_ brother!”

“I mean you have to admit he’s attractive.”

“He’s my _brother_!”

“Yeah, well your brother is goddamn Adonis, isn’t he?!”

“You’re so fucking weird. What happened to not opening up to people with stuff like that?!”

“You passed the friendship test, and shut it, you love me.”

“I do,” she admitted.

He grinned, victorious, then leaned back. “Enough about that. Back to what we were saying. So who’s the real MVP of your affections? Anyone the crew knows?”

“I’m not saying shit,” she countered. Which, of course, got absolutely ruined when she subconsciously looked towards the latest Apex setup. “Shit,” she repeated.

Gil tossed his head back to laugh this time. “You’re literally the worst liar. Now who’s… “ his jaw dropped, more to be dramatic to get a bigger rise out of her than any other reason. “You like the bossman there, don’t you? You don’t go there all the time to check out missions, you go there to talk to him. That’s _adorable_.”

“I changed my mind. I hate you.”

Gil rolled his eyes, then, suddenly a fair bit more serious. “You should go for it! You deserve a little romance if you want it after all you’ve done. And he seems like the sort that’ll give romance back and not be a lying ass about it. Or, you know, not be a lying pirate king." 

“Someone would think you and the others don’t like Reyes, Gil!” 

Gil smirked, then glanced ahead, directly behind her. “Hey, Kandros," he said, as if it were a greeting. 

Sara shot him a look. “Yeah, like I’d ever actually believe-“

“Brodie. Pathfinder.”

She whirled around so fast her chair tipped back at the new, very much non-human voice that came from over her shoulder.

Of course, Kandros was there to steady it before it fell over. 

Sara gawked at him for a minute until Gil nudged her knee with his pointedly. “Kandros! Hi! What brings you here?” she asked, a little too loudly for her own comfort.

“Figured I’d check in on everybody’s favorite resident before I went off on an Apex mission. It’s only right that the leader goes out on the first few runs on the new world. What about you two?” Kandros asked. 

“Team bonding, making sure the watering hole’s not poisoned,” she answered. She tried not to visibly flinch when she realized how bad the joke was. She was grateful that the corner of Gil’s lips turned up, but he stayed quiet. That was, until he got that devious look in his eye.

Gil took another drink and leaned back. “Hey, Kandros. You have room for one more when you ship out? Sara here’s been dying to get out and explore, and I mean, she is the Pathfinder, so it would be nice to have her along by your own logic- big wigs going out first, and all that.”

“Don’t see why not,” Tiran agreed. He looked at Sara. “You up for it? If you’ve got other pressing matters it’s fine.”

Sara searched for words for a few moments. Right, because at any age, being in an enclosed space and then in a situation where you had to stick together hadn’t gotten embarrassing quickly. At all. “Pressing? No. I’m taking a bit of a break. It’s odd jobs here and there until that Primus asshole rears its ugly head. I'm up for it. When do you – _we_ leave?”

“Couple of hours from now. We’re leaving on the Arbiter. Parked right next to the Tempest. It’s  short notice, but you’ll probably be the most welcome face around.”

 “I’ll be there,” Sara agreed

Tiran nodded. “See you then.” He turned and left.

Sara waited until he was out of earshot before she turned back to Gil. “I hate you. I actually hate you.”

He grinned back at her. “You’re welcome, Dollface. But why hate me? You’re not _that_ terrible with flirting. That could've gone far worse. Besides, we do need to explore the place if it’s gonna be home.”

She rolled her eyes and got up. “Well, now that you volunteered me for a mission, I have to get my things. You’re paying for our drinks, just so you know.”

“You’ll thank me someday. I mean, Meri-Dian has to have a little friend to play with, don’t they?”

She flipped him off over her shoulder as she retreated.

“You two would make the most badass children!” he called after her. “And I’m telling Vetra!”

She merely raised her finger higher in response, then lost the battle with her own laugh that was threatening to come out.

By the time she had gotten back to her room, suited up and gotten the last of her things ready for the trip, her mind was going again. This time, thankfully it was more on the mission to come. She had been itching to explore since they had landed there and she and the team had charged through.  Gil had at least given her that opening, too. She contemplated taking the others, but figured they had earned the rest.

She made it to the docks, and when she reached the Arbiter, she stopped and looked up at it.

Right, so it was a roadtrip by nearly all accounts, just with a very attractive friend of hers. She could handle it, but she was doomed.

Then again, she had been through worse situations with less desirable starting points- how they got to Meridian was Exhibit A.

She’d take those odds.


	2. Chapter 2

This… had been a very, very bad idea.

Sara had gotten into the Arbiter with no issue.  It had been smooth sailing until they had all figured out that they should split up into groups and all go different directions. She, Kandros and a handful of others had broken off into their own shuttle, and it had gone downhill from there. She hadn’t minded the team-up, she had minded the entire wall of windows on the shuttle- that bore a striking resemblance to the one she and Liam and the others had been in before it got torn apart and they had nearly fallen to their deaths.

She would’ve laughed if she had enough air in her lungs left.

_Leave it to me to be on the verge of a goddamn panic attack after the biggest event in my life._

She turned around, held onto the bar above them for dear life and squeezed her eyes shut. She could just sense the walls starting to close in on her. _Breathe, fucking breathe._

“Pathfinder?” 

She cracked one eye open and tried to smile at Tiran, but it failed miserably.

“You feeling alright? Is there a problem?”

“Oh, you know, just… kinda having flashbacks to my first near death experience when I fell out of a shuttle that looks exactly like this.” The admission came out rougher than intended, and she had never seen a Turian look guilty until she looked at him after saying it. 

Tiran glanced away. "I didn't even consider that when I offered," he replied. 

“You didn’t know,” she assured him. “But uh… I think I’m just gonna sit down until the pilot finds a place to land.” She practically dropped onto the bench beside them. She did manage the smallest laugh when he followed her down. She thought she had a hero complex, and here he was, checking on the damsel in distress. The laughter promptly died when she realized she had referred to herself as such.  She groaned when she noticed she was bouncing her knee. It was a nervous tick she and Scott had inherited from their mother.

“Well, with any luck we’ll be down before long. When we first touched down for the big fight, we were what, twenty minutes out from where the Hyperion is now?” Tiran asked. 

“Something like that,” she answered. If they were starting where they first landed, that still left around ten minutes in the potential flying can of death. Fuck, this was bad, why had she let Gil convince her to do it? Oh, right, because she wanted to spend time with the guy sitting next to her.

She was so dumb it was infuriating.

Tiran was silent for a while. And then, carefully, like he wasn’t sure he should even speak: “You know, I never apologized to you.”

“For?” Sara asked. 

“Snapping at you after your first real encounter with the Archon. I told you you were being reckless with your life and all of ours. You proved me wrong with flying colors.”

“You call that snapping?” Sara asked. When he didn’t so much as react, she sighed. After she took a moment to enjoy that her breathing was getting back to normal already, she shrugged. “You weren’t wrong. It’s… we just wanted to take care of people. We just had different approaches. Mine just happened to work. You’ve got nothing to apologize for.”

“Still wanted it out of the way.”

“Then apology accepted,” Sara answered with a small smile. It grew a bit but she turned away when she heard him hum what sounded like his own acceptance. Their moment was broken, however, when the shuttle suddenly jerked and her heart sunk again. She waited for worse, but the shuttle evened out and the pilot came on the comms and apologized, claiming it was turbulent by the mountains. Still, she couldn’t help but start up a deathgrip on the edge of the bench. She closed her eyes again and prayed for it to be over soon. She felt Tiran scoot closer to her so the sides of their bodies were touching from arm to hip. It almost set her off again, because that had been her family’s go-to response when one of them were distressed and the others wanted to help but didn’t have the words.

They stayed like that for a while until the shuttle made a thankfully slow decent into whatever landing spot they had found.

When the others had cleared the shuttle, Tiran glanced back at Sara. “Are you going to be alright?”

“You know, I was going to say ‘Fine, so long as this place doesn’t have insert-problem-here’ but considering we have no idea about this place outside of what we saw a few days ago, I’m not going to jinx it.”

“Jinx?” Tiran asked.

“Say something bad that ends up coming true,” Sara clarified. As if to test her theory, she hopped off the side of the ramp a couple of feet above the base. She tested the ground, then nodded, satisfied.  She looked around and then saw the Tower in the distance. At least there was some place to use as a visual guide. They were still miles away now, if anything went wrong.

 _And that thought process is why things go wrong_. If she could keep her mouth shut, things would go swimmingly.

Then again, this was about as close to her old job as she could probably get now, so she best enjoy it when she could.  She started walking away from the shadow of the shuttle to get a better view. “Good. This is… good. This is familiar. This is…” she trailed off when she realized just how colorful and bright everything around her was. It was a nearly laughable contrast from the darkness that it had mere days ago, both at the Tower and just the feeling that had muted everything when she was charging to what might have been her death. But here everything was so fucking colorful and brilliant it was like entering another world.

Well, technically it is, she reminded herself. “This is unreal. It’s gorgeous. Do you see these colors?”

“It’s something else. What did you have in mind to do here first?” Tiran asked.

“Log everything I haven’t seen yet, see what SAM has to say.”  She spotted a large flower that had blue, white, pink and yellow hues all at once and had a distinct glow. “Like that one. It’s huge!”

Tiran watched her approach it, then glanced back at his men, who were looking around elsewhere. He sighed and followed her. “You know, in my experience, approaching unknown fauna on a planet we barely understand isn’t the best idea.”

“Eh, my brother’s the cautious one out of us,” Sara dismissed the claim.

“I’ve noticed,” Tiran deadpanned.

She laughed again. “I’ll be careful. I promise.” She turned back to the flower. Really, this was right up Suvi’s alley with the ‘colors we don’t have names for.’ She said as much, then had SAM log it. In the end, she barely even paid attention to what SAM had to say as far as classification went before she was on to the next one. After a few moments, she noticed Tiran was still behind her, gun tucked into his chest with one finger ready on the trigger. “You’re that worried something’s gonna find us?”

“You’re not?” Tiran countered. He only spared a glance at her before he continued to study the treeline.

She flinched. He thought she was an idiot for just trying to scope out what living things they had to work with. Of course she should have been more focused, but she needed to know more about the local life. She was Pathfinder, after all. She was the people’s guide in more ways than fighting through danger to keep them safe. Still, her chances at impressing him were at an all time low. “I have a priority to work with, and I have a feeling the Kett probably wiped out anything around if there were other threats. Live a little!”

Of course, it was that moment that a deafening roar shattered the silence in the area.

Sara groaned. “Why do I ever bother speaking? Can’t I have a day of peace?” she muttered before she unclipped her assault rifle from her back. At least she had come prepared instead of going in blindly and stupidly. _So take that_ , _Kandros_.

The pair inched closer so they were back to back. They stopped once they had a good setup and scanned the horizon, waiting. Tiran’s men joined them a moment later. They had all started to murmur about it being a potential false alarm when the ground started to shake.  They huddled closer.

The trees to their right shook, and then a creature that Sara could only describe as half Fiend, half Rylkor but three times the size and five times as terrifying burst out of the vegetation and charged right at them.

The part of her that used humor as a coping mechanism pinpointed the fact that it was red and as brightly colored as the damn flowers before the logic kicked in and she realized that no weapon that any of the group had would do any damage against the thing. As far as the creature was concerned, they were dinner and there wasn’t a damn thing anybody could do about it. “RUN!” She figured there was a slim chance of them actually succeeding in outrunning it, but she hadn’t come that far to die now.

The group tore in the opposite direction. They managed to outrun it for a while, but the more agitated it got, the faster it got. And a matter of seconds later, they had come to a narrow fork in the road, and they all seemed to work out they had been herded towards it. And there was no way they could all go in the same direction without getting slowed down and potentially eaten. Sara dodged right, fully intending to try to lead the pack, but she heard Tiran shout something behind her and suddenly they were the only two running to the right, the three others had broken off to the left, and the creature had chosen their direction to run. “Shit! SHIT! WHY DO I EVER BOTHER TALKING?!  ME TALKING ALWAYS MAKES IT WORSE!”

“Definitely worth thinking about _later_!” Tiran called back. He turned sharply, still running.

Sara caught him fiddling with something on his wrist, and she risked a further glance back to see he had unhooked his omni-tool. “The Hell are you doing?!” she shouted, turning back just in time to avoid tripping over a winding tree branch.

“Testing a theory!” he called back before he promptly lit up the omni-tool and threw it towards the creature, just past its head.

The creature watched it fly behind it before it turned back to its preferred prey.

“Theory failed, GO!” Tiran insisted.

The chase went on for minutes after that, with the damn thing not letting up once. They were starting to tire, but at least the creature looked like it was having the same problem. They turned one corner, only to have to skid to a halt because they were met with a dead drop only a meter away from where they were standing. They could see water at the base, but it was still a long way down. They grabbed for each other at the last minute to sturdy themselves, then risked a glance back at the creature-

It was clawing at the ground, not unlike old Earth animals that were ready for a final charge, Sara realized. “Oh, God…”

"Pathfinder," SAM finally chimed in, and Sara wasn't sure whether to be relieved or hate that he spoke up now. "Your chances of survival of a fall from this height or being killed by-" 

"Not the time, SAM!" Sara cut him off. So 'hate that he spoke up', it was. _Shit._

Tiran hadn’t looked away from the creature. Then, carefully. “Path… Sara?”

“Yeah?” Sara squeaked, very aware that they were facing extremely bad odds and Mr. Professional had used her first name.  Alright, so she was probably going to die via this glorified dinosaur. She was going to haunt the shit out of Gil for that one.  She wasn’t going to give him one second worth of peace.

“I apologized earlier about my rush to judgement…” Tiran began.

“Yeah…” she continued. This was most definitely not the time for it.

“I’m sorry about this, too,” he finished.

A moment later, just as the creature charged, Sara could just make out Tiran turning sharply, and then suddenly there was a weight at her abdomen, and the pair of them were falling towards the water below.

 


	3. Waiting Games

Death was… quiet.

Death was… weightless.

Death… felt a lot like water rushing around and being pulled by a current.

Sara snapped awake after realizing that no, she hadn't just been being dramatic subconsciously, and she was literally floating in some sort of water. Still, that was better than being eaten alive. She opened her eyes, only to shut them immediately when water hit them. She was floating along like dead weight. She let herself get carried along for a few seconds, more so in shock about surviving than anything until she noticed that the current had started to speed up after a few seconds, and there was th distinct sound of a waterfall in the distance- a distance that was getting smaller by the second. 

Shit.

She thrashed to try and gain some traction out of sheer instinct, and immediately wished she hadn’t because pain ripped through her left hand when she did. She swore, aloud this time, and got a mouthful of water. She tried to surface again and succeeded. “SAM! Sam what happened?!” she called before she started to get pulled under.

“Kandros forced himself and you off of the cliff. He seems to have favored your odds of survival that way in place of the Unknown Creature. Statistically, you would have had a greater chance at surviving-“

“I know that shit, catch me up!” Sara blurted again when she surfaced. Really, she hadn’t, and really, really didn’t want to know her odds.

“You beat the odds 30236 to –“

“Never tell me the odds!”

“I am required to provide you with information to make a better educated-“

“Why does my wrist hurt so damn bad?!”

“Your wrist gained three stable fractures on impact-“

Fuck.

“-Your omni-tool was also lost on impact.”  

_FUCK._

That meant no contact with the others. They were possibly on the other side of the goddamn planet and couldn’t get word to her friends. She got pulled under and forced her way up again. “Where’s Kandros?!” she highly doubted he knew, but for some reason voicing her own worry helped.

“Unknown, but I am reading several  signs of life in the immediate vicinity.”

**_F U C K._ **

“He may be among them. One life sign is approaching. Four meters-“

 **FUCKING _SHIT_. **  
  
“Three meters.”

 _That damn dinosaur was back_ , she was certain.

“Two meters.”

She was going to die. _Again_.  _Would the fourth time be a charm, too?_

“One-“

Something suddenly yanked at the back of her armor’s collar and her entire body shifted to accommodate the motion. When her feet found solid ground immediately, she was mortified. She had assumed she was close to drowning a mere few seconds ago, by but the feel of it she was in water about waist deep. She hoped that she- hopefully they had landed in water that was far deeper and had floated down to this depth. She finally willed herself to crack an eye open again and held in a relieved laugh when she spotted pale grey fringe- distinctly Turian. She got her footing on the riverbed and crab-walked her way behind Tiran as he dragged her towards the edge of the water.

When they reached it, and she was crawling on more rock than water, she turned and collapsed.

Tiran apparently had the same idea, considering he laid down on his stomach next to her.

They were silent for a while, regaining breath, just laying still. Sara was the first to recover enough to speak. She panted, then reached over in order to pat his chest. “My hero,” she said with a weak laugh. In hindsight, she hoped it sounded more grateful than dreamy. The fact that it was meant about 50/50 between the two wasn’t relevant at the moment.

He merely grunted in response, then groaned.  “You just… had to mention things being bigger and more colorful here, didn’t you?”

She continued to stare up at the sky, considering, and then slowly, carefully crackled a smile, and before long, a full-on belly laugh. It had been so damn long since she had reason to do one, the feeling it caused was nearly alien, but it felt so damn good it was unreal. When she heard what was most likely him laughing with her it set her off all over again. It wasn’t until she had started to shift around that her broken wrist protested and the laughter died in a hiss. When he looked at her, she raised her hand. “Broken wrist. Lost my omni-tool, too.”

“Great,” Tiran sighed. He got up carefully and quickly- enough to make it look like he was fine, but careful enough to reveal that he had a limp. He turned to her and offered a hand, then hesitated.

Sara picked up on the unasked question and gave him her good hand. When he had pulled her up enough she put all her strength into going the rest of the way to return his favor. “How bad’s the leg?”

“I-“ he began, then sighed. “Not terrible, somehow. I’ve had far worse and walked on it.” He looked around, also failing to find anything familiar. “Don’t know _how long_ I can keep walking on it, though.”

She heard the underlying connection with ‘how long he could walk’ vs ‘how much walking back to base or the shuttle they had' without him saying it.  “Any word from your people?”

“No, not yet. But if that… _thing_ followed us, chances are they could get back to the shuttle and do a sweep for us, or at least get help.”

“So it’s a waiting game.”

“Looks to be one, yes.”

“Aw, so it really is an official APEX mission then!”

He shot her a look that would’ve been a lot easier to read had he been human, but there was enough resignation that she filled in the blanks. “What? It does take a while for your people to get shit done, don’t pretend it doesn’t.” When he remained silent, she sighed and unhooked one of her other guns from her back.

He mumbled something about resources that she didn’t catch. She sighed, then ducked under the arm opposite his bad leg to support him. “Well, at least we’ve still got our guns. Alright, what’s your vote on the direction we should go?”

“Considering we’ve got a few waterfalls by the base: upstream.”

She nodded. “Sounds smart. See, I knew you were my favorite Turian for a reason.”

“… Have you ever gotten in trouble for mouthing off so much?”

“Ah, see, that’s what Vidal and I have in common. Never had a complaint about anything involving our mouths.” If it was possible for a Turian’s eyes to roll into the next century, Tiran’s did. She almost felt bad for letting him listen to that line, but was too proud of her own quick thinking to let it bother her. “Okay except that one time Garrus Vakarian would’ve hypothetically punched me in the face.”

“What?!” 

Sara tried not to snort. She had heard him happy, angry, hungover... shocked was a new ballgame for that voice of his, and it was hilarious. “Back in the day Kyla Shepard did something I thought was stupid. I don't even remember what it was by now. I just told a friend it was stupid, and one of his C-Sec friends overheard said he’d deck me in the face if I talked shit about his girlfriend.”

Tiran rolled his eyes again, then drew his gun. He nodded upstream. “Let’s get going before you rig our chances again.”

“I’m unlucky, I can’t help it. Same goes for my brother. We got it from Dad. It’s a damn curse.”

“You’ve got a lot more luck on your side than you think, Pathfinder. You have escaped death three times.”

“Four In the last year,” Sara clarified. “SAM tells me that fall should've killed us. Anyway, the regular near death experience record is like, ten times. Long stories, all of them,” she continued. She was silent for a while as they walked. It was… odd, how quickly he could make her transition from Humor-to-Cope Mess to so, so serious. “But uh… thanks, for that. The ‘luck on my side’ bit.”

Tiran nodded. “I told you that I’ll always be level with you a while back. That hasn’t changed- with or without you dragging me into your ‘almost get killed’ schemes.”

“Aw, but that’s part of my friendship test,” she countered. Again, she flinched. There was the coping to serious bit again. She had gone and ruined A Moment now.

“Did I pass?” he asked after a moment.

Her heart fluttered a bit at that. Alright, maybe she hadn’t. “With flying colors,” she reported, then, loudly to their surroundings. “That are not big and brilliant and do not have very large teeth.”

He laughed at that, again, a little more carefree than the last time, and her heart fluttered again. Well, at least there was some hope for her.

_Best. Near death experience. Yet._

* * *

 

As far as Scott Ryder was concerned, Harry was a loving, compassionate _idiot._

He loved the man to death, he really did. Being there any time his father wasn’t made Harry an important player in Scott’s life. As much as Scott loved Alec, as well, if he was ever asked about the man who raised him, he'd probably say it was Harry over Alec. The man was his godfather on paper, but took the role far more seriously than anything that merely required a signature would claim. 

But the man was far too easy to escape from.

He had ducked out of the medbay when Harry was with another patient. He had gone on his _usual_ rounds (if he made a loop around the main area on the Hyperion he could make it back to his bunk before Harry was back in the room) when he spotted the friend Sara had been talking to before, Gil, flanked by a Turian and a Krogan, all wearing matching pissed off expressions and staring down some Turian woman from APEX. Scott was pretty sure her name was Sajax. The scene was damn near comical, with the aliens behind Gil towering over him, so the whole thing looked like Gil had just brought the Turian and Krogan along for an intimidation factor. The thing was, it hardly seemed to be working for whatever they were trying to accomplish. Sajax had her arms crossed over her chest and she was glaring down at the group. However, the group was glaring back.

“What the Hell do you mean they’re ‘missing?!’” Gil objected. 

“They went out on a scouting mission a few hours back. There was apparently an attack from a wild animal out there. We got our agents back, but Kandros and the Pathfinder are still unaccounted for," Sajax explained. Her tone made it clear it wasn't the first time she had explained it. 

Now that got Scott's attention. He tried to make his approach as quiet as possible, then at the last second he nudged between Gil and the Turian. “What about the Pathfinder, now?”

Gil jumped and turned to him. When Scott looked at him and raised an eyebrow, all he gave the other man in return was an apprehensive look before he turned back to the agent.

Scott leaned forward again. “The Pathfinder’s missing?!”

Sajax sized him up. “Who’s asking?” she looked at Gil. “What, did you call in the cavalry when I wasn’t loo-"

“The _Pathfinder’s brother_ is asking,” Scott growled.

Sajax stared at him, then sighed. “There was a scouting mission. It went wrong, we don’t know where they are. Chances are that they’re fine, it’s only been a  matter of hours.”

Gil turned to Scott. “I’m sure you know that your sister’s a worrier herself- she checks in every couple of hours, no matter what. She hasn’t checked in since she left. Something may be wrong." 

“Sounds about right. Is anything being done?” Scott asked. 

“Not yet, apparently,” the Turian next to Gil chimed in.

Sajax rolled her eyes. “We’re working on it, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted if anything else comes up. I think the Pathfinder and Kandros can manage trouble on their own, but if you have that little faith in-“

“Listen here you little shit-“ Gil began.

“We have a lot of faith in them, thanks,” Scott cut him off. He took him by the shoulder and pulled him back for good measure, but not before setting Sajax with a look that conveyed all that Gil would’ve unloaded on her. He glanced at Gil’s companions, who looked back at him curiously. He nodded to a spot a few yards away, and he led the way over to it.

Once they got there, Gil yanked his shoulder out of Scott’s grip. “The Hell was that about?”

“Making sure we didn’t go off on the girl and jeopardize any of the relationship’s Sara’s made so far. See? I said ‘we’, I’m on your side. Now who the Hell is Kandros?”

Gil’s glare softened with each passing word, and at the question, he shrugged. “Well, admittedly if it would be anyone she’d be safest with that isn’t standing in a five foot radius of us, it’s him. He's the leader of the militia here. You’ve seen him around. He invited her on a mission to explore this place, and… well, now you’re all caught up.”

“Do we need to stage a rescue mission?” Scott asked. He would be ready and raring to go for one whether Harry liked it or not.

“Easy, Rambo. Look, we might have not talked before a few hours ago, but I know you’re all Sara’s got, and if you over-exert yourself and talked about doing so in my presence, she’d murder me. So no, it’s a bloody waiting game.”

Scott scoffed. “But if she’s hurt-“

“Have you met your sister? She’ll bloody manage if she has to so much as tape an injury shut,” Gil countered.

Scott raised his eyebrows briefly. He had barely known the guy across from him a grand total of eight hours but he was already moving up in the ranks of his favorite people. That sentiment was one of the truest things he had ever heard. He turned his attention back to the others. “And you guys are…?”

The Turian spoke up. “Vetra Nix, and that's Nakmor Drack, friends of Sara. Good to finally officially meet you,” she replied, then, after a moment of contemplation, “who’s Rambo?”

“Character from an old vid, Vetra. We’ll show it to you sometime. You’re probably one of the few who would appreciate it,” Gil explained. “Actually, Drack, you are too.”

Scott nodded a greeting to the pair, then looked back at Gil. “Seriously? Just wait them out? Not do a damn thing when they could be in danger? We need to find them!" 

“Well, considering they just might not want to be found…” Gil began.

Scott immediately got the implication. “What?”

Vetra elbowed Gil in the ribs. “Nothing. Sara should be fine. She always is. We just need to try Plan A and wait it out.”

Scott put his hands out. “Alright, just wait on that for a second, what the Hell does ‘don’t want to be found’ mean?!”

Gil looked irritated for a second, then apparently threw caution to the wind for a moment and had the nerve to smirk at him. “Well, you’ve been out cold for _a lot_ then, haven’t you?”

“If you’re any sort of quality stand-in brother, you’ll tell me everything you know,” Scott protested.

Gil’s smirk widened, but he stayed quiet again.

Scott was about to object when he practically sensed Harry coming before he saw the man calling him. He hadn’t been spotted yet. “Get me to the Tempest, get me back into the action, please,” he begged.

Gil stared him down, then shook his head. “Nope.” He waved Harry down.

Scott gawked at him. “Seriously?!”

“One thing I’ve learned in life, mate: It’s better to be on the receiving end of a protective older brother’s ire than getting a friend’s sibling nearly killed over a stupid decision,” Gil explained. “But, both topics are to be continued. I promise.”

“Ass,” Scott countered, although there was no venom.  He faced Harry and put his hands up when the man approached. “Hey, Doc, come on, it was just a walk-“

“I heard you ask to be taken to the ship, you horrible liar,” Harry shot back. When Scott took a step closer to him, he took hold of the younger man’s closest wrist and in a second fluid motion, clapped a bracelet onto it.

Scott frowned at it, then recognition dawned on him. “You put a tracker on me?!”

“Traditional methods were failing, so yes I did. Now back to med-bay!”

“I’m fine!”

“Then a few more days of downtime won’t kill you when we’re here.”

“But I’m bored! I don’t _do_ downtime!”

“Scott _Raylan_ Ryder, get back to medbay _now_.”

Gil choked back a small laugh, then turned to Vetra and Drack before he motioned at them to get moving.

“What’s the problem? He just said the guy’s name-“

Gil shook his head. “It’s a human thing. When an older parental figure uses a middle name, shit gets real and non-family should leave the vicinity immediately,” Gil muttered as he herded them along and away from the other two men. 

Now that his backup had promptly retreated, Scott groaned and started to head back for medbay. “I’ll give it three more days-“

“A week, then we can talk,” Harry argued.

“Five days?” Scott negotiated.

“I will keep that bracelet on you after you leave.”

“Oh fine. Why do you have to be such a buzzkill?!”

“Because it’s part of the job description as doctor _and_ godfather. Your dad’s literal words were ‘if the kids are a pain, be a pain right back.’”

“Thanks, God-Dad," Scott countered. He hardly meant it. 

“You’re welcome, Godson.”


	4. Chapter 4

Sara woke with a start some time later. She panicked at first. There was no immediate danger, and that was the problem. Everything was relatively quiet aside from hopefully-harmless wildlife in the distance, nobody was attacking. It was like her subconscious had woken her up to point out that it was too good to be true.  She spotted Kandros on the ledge a few feet away and realized just why it had been so peaceful. They had stopped to camp and by the looks of things it was a fair while into her shift keeping watch. “Shit, I’m up, I’m up, what-“

“Easy, Pathfinder. It’s fine, it’s only been three hours since we were supposed to switch.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have- why didn’t you wake me?”

“When was the last time you got a decent amount of rest?”

She opened her mouth and shut it firmly a moment later. His tone conveyed the answer anyway. It was true, and the logic was what waking up like that had caused. She couldn’t remember her first uninterrupted sleep before that. “Yeah. Uh… anything new?”

“Stumpy’s a nuisance to everything, but not much else to report.”

They had named the creature Stumpy after they had found him again.  They had spotted it terrorizing smaller wildlife and went to higher ground to study it. All they ended up working out that it still looked as dangerous from far away. They had also noticed now that they were behind it that a chunk of its tail was missing- thus the nickname that Sara was surprised that Tiran was entertaining. Of course, the bite brought the big question that there was something bigger and higher on the foodchain around. Sara simply hoped it was the Architect that had been floating around the trees when Kandros had first landed at the battle. It made the most sense, so it was the right answer and she was sticking to it. If (read: when) she got proven wrong, she’d deal.

“Well, either way it’s your turn. Go rest for a while.”

“I’m fine. Turians get by with less sleep than humans all the time.”

“You’ve already gotten the hero card in my book. You don’t have to prove anything.”

“It’s been ten hours, Pathfinder. I can manage,” Tiran countered.

“Well now you just made me look bad.”

“You made yourself look bad when you thought it would be a good idea to say we’d be fine and not assume there were predators out here. As far as sleep is concerned, you deserve to sleep for years after saving all of us,” Tiran objected. “But you’re one of those ‘I just slept six hundred years, that’s enough for a lifetime types.”

“Literally was about to say that,” Sara admitted. “And I thought Kett were the only challenging predators around here!” She rolled over to shove at his knee and gasped overdramatically. “Ass.”  She pulled herself to her knees and went next to him and readjusted to sit. She stared out onto the horizon and let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Really, Meridian was gorgeous now that it wasn’t all remnant metal, bullets and energy field flying everywhere and said Architect rearing its ugly head. She could enjoy it more now that they were at least away from everything. Things were brighter, bigger, and ten times more beautiful.  The same giddy laugh that had been cut short hours before bubbled up again. Then it turned nervous all over again when all of the other emotions decided to hit her at once: happiness, fear, guilt, relief, doubt- they were all there in a muddle in her head. She sighed and ran a hand through her golden hair and fought back the tears that threatened to fall when the negative emotions started winning the battle.

“Sounds like you’re finally about to take me up on my offer about venting,” Tiran mused.

“No,” she laughed weakly. It faded again when the urge to do just that might as well have punched her in the face. “Just… okay yes, but more just… I’m less bitter about it now, because _this_ … this makes it all worthwhile, you know. Fruits of my labor as far as you can see. This… this is what took so damn long to get. This is what grinning and bearing Tann and his bullshit and all the politics ended with. Scary predators aside it’s… something.” She genuinely couldn’t come up with a word to do the sense of pride and happiness justice. Then it all came crashing down. “But it’s still so much. We lost all the Pathfinders that were supposed to do this. I let those salarians die because I knew if they survived exaltation they’d be less of a threat than the krogan. I got the Salarian Pathfinder killed because of that choice.  They should’ve been here leading. They would’ve done it better. They would’ve… Scott would’ve been better. He had more… military-ish training than I did. I’m a glorified science officer, I shouldn’t be in charge of all this, let alone a guardian for a species.” She shook her head. “You know, when we were growing up my mom called Scott and I Little Albatrosses.  It’s a bird from Earth, and there was some poem where one of them was good luck for a ship. See, we came along and Dad got all of those promotions and ideas that led up to all this…”

“Seems like a fitting nickname,” he said after a moment.

“Yeah, well, what you don’t know is that in the poem some asshole shoots the albatross out of the sky and that starts all the bad luck. I think I’m at the bad luck phase of the nickname.”  She nearly jumped when she felt something on her hand, and it took her a minute to realize he had put his hand over hers. Him and the touching, she thought fondly for a minute.

“The way I see it, there were problems, but you’re still here. Hundreds of people are still here, alive and thriving in a new world because of you,” Tiran insisted. “Sounds like you’re still good luck to me.” When she scoffed and bumped his shoulder with hers, he shook his head. “I mean it, _Pathfinder_. You did the best with what you could do,” Tiran cut her off. “Focus on what you started with. Yes, it was a lot of blood, sweat and tears but you did it. You did this for everyone, despite all the odds against you. I don’t know how you did it,” Tiran admitted. “Believe me, there are some people who wouldn’t have done it. Would’ve out and out refused the second they got the job. But you persevered, and that’s the most admirable thing about you,” he went on. “Not to mention the politics. I don’t see how you didn’t deck Tann in the face. I almost have.”

“Oh, no, it’s tempting. Telling Addison that Tann can fuck off with his opinions was the closest I got.”

Tiran shrugged. “Well, at least you got to do it somehow.”

“Oh believe me, if I ever get the opportunity I’m still gonna do it.”

“Just make sure I’m there to see it.”

“Will do.”

He ‘hm’ed again, though this time it was loaded with eagerness to see the mentioned event. He scanned the horizon in appreciation once more before he stood up.  “Come on, we’re already burning daylight.”

“You know that phrase?”

“That’s what the new human recruits always say when they’re showing off and trying to upstage everybody. Thinks it makes them look more ready for anything.”

“You showing off to me, Kandros?”

He huffed out another laugh. “Only if it’s working,” he countered.

She tried to hide her answering gawk.

He waved his hand in front of her to extend the offer again.

She took it and let him pull her to her feet. They had what looked like a quarter of a mile left of outcropping on the cliff they were on before they had to climb down and be in the creature’s territory again. She brushed herself off, and realized in that moment that he hadn’t exactly said ‘no’ to the question.

The next few hours had gone by in mostly companionable silence aside from small talk. With both of their omni-tools gone, Sara’s intended job of logging plants and animals was complicated. She had forgone the animal bit, then plucked leaves and petals from plants she hadn’t seen before and started stringing them on twine she had come across. It was entirely primitive, but if it was enough to log and have SAM fully analyze later, it would have to do. Still, there was some childhood charm to the activity, and she nearly felt bad that Suvi wasn’t there. She would’ve enjoyed the entire experience. Even Tiran seemed to be kinder about it, opting to keep watch instead of giving her a lecture on awareness. Then again, she had kept a gun in her free hand.  It was a work in progress.

When they made it over one hill and saw the bow of the Hyperion sticking out on the horizon, she let out a victorious shriek. It was mortifying a moment later, but that didn’t stop her from hitting his shoulder repeatedly in her excitement. “Finally. I mean that’s still at least a couple of days’ walk, but we’re closer than before!”

 “I knew you were an ‘every little bit counts’ kind of person,” Tiran mused.

 “More like ‘it’s the little things’, but yeah, that works. What do you think? Three days walk?”

“Two, if Stumpy isn’t around and doesn’t have family around.”

“Now who’s jinxing us?” she shot back.

“Hey, you’re an Albatross, we’ll be fine.”

“I shouldn’t have told you that,” she murmured. She had never seen a Turian look smug, but the bastard did in response, and she rolled her eyes. “Come on.” She led the way for a few feet until she heard something that sounded wooden snap under one foot. She felt  herself start to sink and merely braced herself instead of checking just what had happened. There was really no point. She was destined to fall at least once a day in some capacity anyway. Suddenly there was a second, louder crack and the ground fully caved in under her. “SHIT!” She heard Tiran share her sentiment before she couldn’t hear anything over the whooshing in her ears.

Thankfully she was only falling for about five seconds before she hit the ground. Her fall was cushioned by the vegetation around her. She groaned out loud for a while until she heard footsteps. She cracked one eye open and raised her pistol to be safe, but sure enough, it was just Tiran reaching actual ground level and approaching her.

He pulled her to her feet. “You alright?”

“Yeah, fine. Just sick of falling literally everywhere. And, ya know, how everything is technically fake on this planet but still hurts like a goddamn bitch if you interact with it the right way. Of all the goddamn luck..." 

“Well, maybe you’re an Albatross to everyone but yourself,” he suggested.

She scoffed again and turned around, immediately back to business. “You’re not wrong, I guess. I mean that might as well have been exhibit A, and basically my career as Pathfinder is Exhibit B through Z- maybe even into the Greek alphabet. Cause I mean really, who could actually fuck up this much and-“ she coughed when she was suddenly launched forward by his weight- something she really, really shouldn’t have recognized after only one other experience with it. She hit the ground again and would’ve cracked her head on it had his hand suddenly not been  there to stop it from doing so. Still, he hadn’t moved from being on top of her. Hardly a problem in her book. “You know, usually I let a date get at least a quarter through dinner or drinks with me before we get to this poin-“

 _“Pathfinder._ ” Even without the hand that he clapped over her mouth immediately after saying it, there was no mistaking that the name was a warning this time. 

That was a warning if she had ever heard one. She eased up, and when he finally looked down at her he blanched, realizing just how he had landed and raised himself carefully, but not before motioning for her to stay quiet. He reached behind her shoulder and detached her sniper rifle. She rolled to the side as he lined up a shot at something in the distance without  word. Really, the whole thing shouldn’t have been a turn on after that fucking line she used and the very clear, imminent danger, whatever it was, but leave it to her to come up with something completely inappropriate. She raised herself onto her knees carefully to see what he was aiming at.

She could just make out the silhouettes of a handful of Chosen and Anointed. “Well that just fucking figures…” she hissed. She retrieved her own gun that had landed a couple of feet to their right.

“Remnants in the literal sense…” Tiran agreed. A moment later he pulled the sniper rifle’s trigger and landed a shot right between the eyes of one of the Anointed.

The Kett immediately scattered, searching for their mystery attacker.

Sara sighed dramatically. “Never a dull moment.”  She sighed. Nearly immediately, an energy blast went zooming past her head, missing her by a matter of inches. Without missing a beat, she flinched. “Aaaand then there’s that talking thing again.”

Tiran chuckled beside her again, preparing another shot. “Then let’s make it run of the mill for you. You and that Krogan make bets on fights all the time, right?”

“Yes?!”

 ”When she arched an eyebrow, he turned his attention to the Kett that were making their way over.  “The one who gets the least kills in the next five minutes buys drinks when we get back to the Nexus.”

“Sign me the Hell up!”

“… For?”

“I mean you’re on!”

There was that damned smirk again, and suddenly he was up and a few feet away, leading a couple of Kett from her spot. She bolted the other way to draw the other half of the group’s attention.

Well, if that last offer had been any indication, whether it was a friendship or more with him, she needed Kandros in her life in any way possible. In a matter of hours he had nearly become her rock, and that was just what she needed.  Alas, she could get all frilly later. For now… she had a competition to win.


	5. Really, Really

A little known fact about Tiran Kandros was that one of his aunts- his favorite one, but that was irrelevant- was human. Mary Vakkel was relatively small for a human- a stark contrast to his Uncle Ren, who had been known for his own height, but she packed as much of a punch verbally and physically as she could. She had been the one to teach him everything about the world that his parents hadn’t. She had been the one who had given him the ‘give humans a chance’ speech: ‘yes they’re ignorant, yes, after the war they’re liable to just shove a gun in your face and ask questions later, but most of them try to be decent and succeed, so don’t go judging a book by its cover, huh?.’ So really, when the human Pathfinder showed up, distinctly not the one they expected, just slightly over ‘relatively small’ but as much of a spitfire as his aunt was, who clearly joked to cope with her terrible rotten luck, who only acted before thinking in dire situations, and who made sure she could help everyone in need, no matter what her schedule, he was bound to like Sara Ryder.

He just hadn’t expected how easily simply liking her elevated to being fond of her as a good friend and… well, maybe even beyond that. When he was young he had promised himself that he’d find someone like his aunt to grow old with. Species was irrelevant, so seeing said woman who shared his aunt’s values had been fine by him. True, he didn’t expect anything to come of it. Really, he had only noticed that there was anything more than friendship when he realized he had looked forward to her occasional check ins. In the long run, he would gladly take being her friend, but it was hard not to at least consider the idea. But alas, that was some idealistic childhood fantasy.

Even the things she did that should’ve rightly pissed him off didn’t bother him that much. She’d stop in to chat and check on APEX missions when even he knew she had bigger priorities on her mission to take down the Archon. Take the time where some ‘misguided’ human had rigged explosives around the Nexus to prove a point about AI and Sara had come barreling into Militia HQ, skidded to a halt and essentially shouted the question of whether or not they were okay. She was already back on her way to sprinting around to find one of the bombs by the time he had gotten through the first half of his warning to _not focus on them and get said bomb_ , but it still concerned him that he had at least started to object. Even now, she was milking the victory he had handed to her- a secret he’d probably take to his grave for fear of her wrath. Granted, he hadn’t exactly intended to throw their little competition. He had come up with some lie that she had gotten into his rifle’s sites at the last second, which was a white lie- he had decided to throw the competition a matter of seconds before she had gotten into his sights. Still, there was a spring back in her step as she listed off the drinks- plural- it was almost a full tab that she was creating that he was going to have to pay for.

Still, he laughed along with her as she broke down the fight bit by bit, suddenly letting her (granted intentionally overdramatized) ego re-hash her part in the fight, she switched to complimenting a few of the headshots he had gotten in, and how he worked so much better with her rifle that she might as well just give it to him.

The conversation switched to her squadmates after that: which ones the pair of them would’ve beaten if they were in that competition, which ones would’ve beaten them, how quickly Drack would’ve just plowed his way through all of the Kett. Tiran was pretty sure he must’ve looked pathetic, because after a while he just sort of… stared at her in affectionate admiration because she had a way about talking about her people that made him feel like he knew them. By the end of it he wanted to be part of that team instead of hanging around back at the Nexus by the time they would leave on principle alone. He knew one thing: he needed to meet every single one of them.

After that, it was comparing notes on Kyla Shepard and her old team. Tiran had asked her about being the latest hero, which had gotten them on the topic, and even with the six hundred year gap, Shepard had been the biggest hero in their recent history, so they started there. Who had seen Shepard, Vakarian, Alenko and the others in passing or talked to them their early career days and the like.

 

* * *

 

 

He stopped short when there was a low rumbling and the ground started to shake. A mechanical sound followed.

“Oh, Hell no. They’re not all dead after the shutdown?!” Sara hissed.

“What’s not dead?” Tiran asked. He looked her way and tried not to swallow hard when he saw that she was shoving ammo into her gun. “What’s not dead?” he repeated.

“Remember when you and your guys flew in here when you were coming to back us up- those weird fucking snake things in the sky?”

He remembered the creatures three times the size in height and at least seven times longer vividly. So he really, really, didn’t like where this was going. “Yes.”

She at least had the nerve to give him an apologetic smile before the ground a few yards ahead of them exploded. It was her turn to launch herself at him, and with the added help of her jump jets they managed to clear the immediate blast radius of the rubble.

The pair of them dove for cover. Sara went one way and he went the other. He heard her fire off some tech power, then had to duck to avoid what sounded like gatling laser fire. He looked in Sara’s direction, only to find her last spot vacant. “How do we get rid of this thing?!” he called. Architect- that’s what he had heard it was called.

“We’re gonna have to do this the hard way, so-  SHIT- we gotta aim for  its legs. Get ready to run, too!”

“Why?!”

“They get offended when you try to cripple- SHIT, GET OUT OF THE RED ZONE!”

Tiran blinked for a moment, wondering what the Hell that meant until he realized that the area around him was tinted red and there were strange black flecks every few inches. He saw a red line on the ground and dove for it, then rolled away. The red was instantaneously cleared, and then the red flashed ridiculously brightly and there was a low hum of energy to it. He could sense the electricity coming off of the remnants, so he rolled away again and turned his attention back to the Architect itself. The bottom of its legs were glowing in a near too-convienient ‘attack here’ kind of way. Granted, he was never one to “look a gift horse in the mouth” as Lyons said. He immediately opened fire on the nearest leg. If the sudden ropes of color that were also hitting the leg was any indication, Sara was doing her damnedest to continue to onslaught using tech powers alone.

After minutes that seemed like ages, the Architect finally let out a roar and pushed off of the ground.

Tiran waited a few moments before he looked around. “Did we-“

“NEVER ASK THAT QUESTION WHEN YOU’RE FIGHTING AN ARCHITECT!”  Sara countered.

She had booked it so quickly towards the Architect that he barely registered that she had run directly in front of and passed him until she was a few feet ahead. He groaned and tore after her. “How many of these things have you fought?!”

“Counting this fucker? About seven! Or, six, considering this is the one I probably shot at out of spite when we were here!” Sara answered.

Well, at least she knew what she was talking about, then. He was a fair bit concerned that she was still running as fast as she was, though. So these things retreated far. He was suddenly blatantly aware that if this place was as endless as the reports implied, who knew how far “far” would actually end up being.

As if it heard him thinking, the Architect did one final stretch in the sky, not unlike a hanar moving and suddenly dove for the ground again. He had to skid to a halt just to stop his pace that would’ve put him right in the path of one of its legs.

After that, Sara was going to have to pay for at least one of his drinks when they got back. If they got back at this rate. He knew that when Sara fought these things there was at least one other person doing damage and an omni-tool boosting everything.

Still, that didn’t stop him from opening fire quicker than he ever had when another one of the Architect’s legs started to glow.

Naturally, his gun ran out of rounds after that particular onslaught. He spotted Sara out of the corner of his eye and bolted for her. When he reached her, he felt her breathing heavy but in short gasps more than hearing or seeing it. “What?”

She put her free hand up to silence him. A round of the laser fire went over their heads again. She held out her hand and Tiran noticed that a ring on the armor glowed orange. “Twenty three…” she said out loud.

“What’re you counting? How many seconds between attacks?”

“Smart, but no. The record for energy drains on this thing’s legs before it runs is thirty. See when Jaal, Drack and I are in  the field we all pick a leg and go from there. This guy’s already at twenty three and it’s not letting up.” She launched herself upward and tossed her hand up. “He’s got friends!” she called.

That was another bother of the fight- the little bots that almost seemed harmless to the point of irrelevance compared to the monster above them. He’d pop up every so often so Sara could pick them all off one by one before she turned her attention back to the Architect.

Tiran watched an orange stream of light shoot from one armored hand and hit the Architect. “Don’t you need-“

“Liam and some of his friends on the Nexus worked out an implant for an amor that lets me get some omni-tool perks.”

Tiran made a mental note to remember which one Liam was and thank him if/when they got back.

The area around them suddenly went red again and they scrambled away. The attack subsided and they regrouped in the next sheltered area over.

That was the pattern for the next seven energy drains until the Architect roared again and retreated.

They followed. The last two legs also shared the same pattern. Hide, energy drain, run for their lives, come back, energy drain, duck. It had taken thirty five rotations each that time around.

When the Architect collapsed, apparently finally defeated, Tiran wasn’t sure what to think when Sara walked up to it as confident as possible. She was still clearly buzzing with adrenaline- not that he wasn’t.  But there was something so… routine about her movements that made the sight to behold nearly impossible to grip.

When she reached the (he hoped) carcass, she extended her hand again and the air tingled with energy for a while.

The Architect suddenly shook again, and the same mechanical humming started up again.

Tiran hurried forward, but she held out her arm to stop him.

He tried not to gawk when the creature merely curled up, then raised its head upward and launched itself just… up and away.

After a few moments of dead silence, Sara broke it. “Huh… wonder where it’ll actually go considering the sky’s fake…” she mused.  When he looked at her, she shrugged and laughed, but it was lost in a pant. “It’s… they go into orbit for some weird reason. If those things go sentient and break out of whatever hold the Remnant have over them, the galaxy’s fucked. Like, _Reapers_ fucked.”

Tiran really, really didn’t need that thought in his head either.  He looked away to scan the horizon for any additional threats, because they were a guarantee at that rate. He was halfway across his line of sight when something caught his attention just a few paces ahead of them. “Huh…” he parroted her.

She turned to him, then, high and clipped: She was still coming down from the fight. “What?”

 He pointed ahead. “Shuttle,.”

Sure enough, they had run right back where they had started. The shuttle was a mere few paces ahead, all in one piece. 

“Huh…” she repeated.

* * *

 

The moment Tiran’s back hit the shuttle’s interior wall and Sara’s mouth found his, every single bad thing that had crossed his mind about adrenaline and the fight went flying out the window.

He wasn’t sure who had made the first move (read: pounced) outside, but there was no doubt that this was fueled by adrenaline. It could’ve been fueled by worse, really.  Now his only problem was trying to remember how humans worked… this. It had been a fair bit of a while since he had been with a human. They were one of those species that physical intimacy worked similarly enough even if it was a bit odd at times.

There were alarm bells going off in his head that this was the Pathfinder and they were supposed to be equals in leadership with all those politics, but ‘politics’ turned into ‘political nonsense’ somewhere  in the moment’s span where Sara had apparently started to try to hike herself up into him, and he couldn’t bring himself to care anymore about the Should and Should Nots of the situation.

Sara apparently came to the same thought process mere seconds after him and pulled back. “This is totally a bad idea. Right? ‘Tann would have a field day.”

“Well, where that’s concerned, I seem to recall telling you that I was sick of being the ‘good one’,” he countered.  

It was apparently the right thing to say, judging by the stunned, impressed, gurgle that came out of her throat in response.  She stared for a minute and he wondered if he hadn’t just screwed whatever this was up, but then she surged forward again.

Tiran was impressed they had managed to even have that brief conversation, then found it hard to give a damn again when she tried to climb him again. He slid his hands behind her thighs and turned them so she was the pinned one. Then, from the front of the shuttle:

_“Ryyyyydddddeeeeerrrrrr. Saaaarrraaaaaaaa. Where the Hell are youuuu, your brother’s gonna bloody kill us aaaaaallllll, and probably me firrrsssttt, but what a way to gooooo.”_

The pair of them came fully to their senses at Gil’s voice coming from the comm panel.

Tiran had no idea how they managed to easily detangle themselves without much trouble. He set her back down and she went over to the panel. “Gil? Gil! We’re here! We’re good! Almost died three times, but we’re good-“

“You what?!  Well get your asses back here!”

“Yeah…” she sighed.

Tiran slid behind her to access the shuttle controls to start it up. He pulled up the comm panel first, and one of the transcribed messages was from the crew that had been with him. They had gotten back safely because by some stretch of luck the path that they had taken to get away from that creature had looped around and sent them right back to the Hyperion. Lucky bastards. Still, he apparently sort of got the girl, so what was he complaining about? He glanced back when her and Gil had stopped talking. “Uh, everything okay?”

“Fine, just… best friend is acting the part of big brother and he’s probably going to run off and tell little brother and it’s gonna be a bitch to explain.”

“Then they’ll be happy to know we’ll be back to explain it in person.”

“Never gonna hear the end of it,” Sara replied.

Silence passed again, and Tiran figured it was his turn to break it. “So… that happened.”

A moment, and she laughed. “Yes. Yes it did.”

That seemed to be it, so he figured he was up again. Damn it, he liked her, and that had happened and again, there wasn’t anything dulling the senses but nerves, and now they were carrying on like usual, apparently still perfectly comfortable. And she had laughed. She hadn’t denied it or called it a mistake… yet. “You know, I’m headed back to the Nexus in a week. Wanna add dinner to those drinks I owe you?”

“Well, look at you, trying to do this properly.”

“Been known to come up with a few surprises,” he countered. Without missing a beat, he settled in and got the shuttle to take off.

“… Secretly knowing how to fly these things being one of them?” Sara asked.

“Pretty lousy secret, but yes.”

“Hm. And… yes to dinner too, by the way. Just… low key.”

“Day after tomorrow, 7, in the quad? It’ll look like business,” he suggested.  She nodded, and he nodded back. “Sounds like a plan.” She beamed at him, a stark contrast to most of the expressions he had seen her use, and if that wasn’t a bit of an ego stroke considering the planning of a date with him that caused it, he wasn’t sure what was.

There was comfortable silence this time for a few moments, until the conversation hit him again. And then it did.  He remembered he hadn’t been on a date in years. It had been all business for too long, not to mention there really hadn’t been many options for companionship.

He was going to have to work for this one. He didn’t mind in the least.


	6. Chapter 6

Gil stared ahead at Sara as the pair of them regrouped in the lounge part of the Tempest. Sara had filled him in on everything that had happened on the scouting mission. He, however, had his own priority upon hearing all the details. “So… I outed myself to a relative stranger, in a call that I didn’t even expect you all to hear…” he reviewed.

Sara glanced up from her new omni-tool that she had been programming and nodded. She was relieved that after she had found him and blurted everything out to him that was the bit he had picked to focus on. “Yeah. If it makes you feel better, he didn’t care at all. And he’s not one to go blabbing, either.”

“Yeah, well, it’s still something I didn’t want out there in the open. It’s my detail to give away, you know?” Gil asked. 

Sara stopped fiddling with the device and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "I know, and I get it. But you were worried about me, and if you haven’t noticed, when you’re worried you word-vomit harder than anybody we know. So really, it was bound to happen. Besides, for a guy who likes secrets, you never shut up.”

Gil’s stare finally broke as he slowly cracked a smile, then scoffed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. And I mean… there are worse people who could’ve found out.” He leaned back. “But so… you and the bossman actually got somewhere, huh?”

It was her turn to scoff. His focus on himself was too good to be true. “Yes, and now… like, I… wanna see how it goes, but I know gonna get complicated as Hell, so I already think I fucked it all up." 

Gil shrugged. “You deserve a break, and if that’s it, so be it. We’ve been over this!” Gil countered. “Also, not to be Captain Buzzkill, and  I’m sure you’ve thought of this: what’re you going to tell Reyes if you and Kandros are gonna pursue this?”

Sara groaned. He was right. And at this rate there was no more running from that particular topic. She had been in blissful denial the last day. She knew it wouldn’t last. She did want to pursue things with Tiran, and Reyes and her were complicated and not exclusive, but… she still didn’t want to hurt the guy. Not that he didn’t deserve it, but she was never the revenge sort. “I’m a slut," she mused. When Gil sputtered over his drink, she realized she hadn’t just thought the sentiment.

Gil recovered and shook his head. "Babe, no you’re not, you…your social life is just a mess. I think it could be worse.  You’re all grown adults trying to save the universe, you’ve faced harder problems, _handle it_ ,” Gil insisted. “But, you know, if Reyes’ solution is trying to kill you-“

Her head snapped up so she could look him in the eye. “Thank you for that added possibility and paranoia. Really needed it,” she snapped. 

“-He’s gonna have to deal with a small army that’s ready to fight for you to the death,” Gil finished and gave her a pointed look.

A laugh bubbled up from the back of her throat and she switched seats so she could sit next to him. She put her head on his shoulder. “Hey, you were up in the Tempest when we got here, you saw it. It’s a _big_ army,” she corrected.

Gil put his hands up. “Even better.”

“What’s better?” Vetra asked as she strolled into the room. She walked over to the shelf, apparently on her initial task of finding something. She retrieved some sort of gadget, and turned her attention to the others again.

Gil opened his mouth, and when Sara lunged for him, he ducked quickly enough to catch her around the waist and push her down so he could look at Vetra properly. “Ryder came back from that mission with a new boyfriend! And you owe me ten credits.”

“What?!” Sara countered, choosing to ignore that Vetra had asked the  same thing, quieter. “What do you mean ten credits?!”

“Crew had a bet going on after they heard about the mission,” Gil explained. “You two aren’t subtle, nor were you subtle before this whole thing. We all figured something went down before you even told me it did.”

Sara wanted to tell him 'you're less subtle than I am’ but she fought the urge. Instead, she turned to Vetra. “You were in on it?!”

Vetra pointed at Gil accusingly. “He turned us all into betting people. And I thought you two would be all professional and pine from afar like you usually do. You know, that kind of pining that’s silent but everyone still picks up on it,” she explained. She walked over to them and sat on the edge of the couch. “So Kandros, huh? You could do worse. You _have_ done worse… _are_ doing worse? What’s the deal with-“

“I don’t know!” Sara cut her off. “I think we need to make a stop off at Kadara soon. We actually have to check the outpost, anyway.”

Vetra shrugged. “My vote’s for Kandros. And if Reyes doesn’t like it, there’s a line to beat his ass if he tries anything.”

“Yeah, Gil already told me. And I doubt Reyes would react badly anyway.” Sara wasn’t lying. Sure, the possibility was there in the back of her mind, but she also was more confident that Reyes was the type that would prioritize looking after Kadara over the one he was having occasional casual sex with. And yes, there was no doubt she had jumped the gun with Tiran. And she did care about Reyes, she didn’t want to hurt him; not out of fear but for concern. Relationship aside, he had helped her out in spades. There would be no outpost on Kadara without him, and he had been the one who had been the one who sniped that one kett who had almost gotten her when they were outside the doors where everything _really_ began during the fight with the Archon.  Of course, it was that thought process that made her realize how fucking stupid getting involved with another person was when she was still technically with him. The guy had fucking saved her life. But they _had_ used “just sex” in conversation. It was a constant back and forth. She took the bottle of vodka that she and Gil had been nursing over the last few hours. She realized must’ve looked like it was blatantly obvious she was about to shotgun the remaining contents, because Gil  had bolted up and wrestled it away from her a moment later, with an extremely firm “no.”  She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Can we talk about something else?”

“What? Why? You and Kandros are the talk of the Tempest, might as well address it. Not like there’s much else to do now that we’re all waiting for the next adventure.” Vetra objected.

Sara turned to glower at Gil.

Gil, to his credit, leaned back. “What- me- no! I didn’t say anything about you two! Did you not hear that we all bloody worked it out?! Like Vetra said, you’re one of those not-couples that just _look at each other_ and everyone gets nauseated. It’s pathetic.”

She elbowed him. There was a loaded pause, and then she sighed. She had lighter things to worry about for the day- and date, for that matter. Now if she could only focus on them, that would be great. Well, to do so, she had to start somewhere. “So… what should I wear?”

Gil scoffed. “Really, you ask the one who bats for the other team-“

“I wasn’t asking you!” Sara shot back and added another elbow to his ribs for his trouble. “I was asking Vetra…” she looked up, directly at the comm above them. “And everyone listening in on this conversation!” she finished in a yell.

There was a beat, then several voices over the comms:

 _“Ooh! You looked really good in that blue dress!_ ” Suvi’s voice was first, followed by an embarrassed scoff from Kallo in the distance.

Sara wanted to curl up and die. She should’ve known Suvi would actually turn on the comms to listen in on the details of the latest gossip on the ship, then chime in with absolutely no shame.

“ _Naw, the black one! Bet Kandros would appreciate one where you look like you could kill a man in it!_ ” Liam called from the engine room.

 _“Speaking from experience, Kostas?_ ” Cora cut in. 

Sara promptly buried her face in her hands. That was nearly all of them. “Drack? Jaal? I know you two can hear this!"

“ _I’m staying out of it!_ ”Jaal called, also in the engine room.

Drack finally poked his head out of engineering to provide input. “ _Hey, if it’s a date wouldn’t it be better if you just didn’t wear anything- Ow_!” he turned around and visibly shoved something. 

“Oh, like you even felt that!” Liam countered, apparently not far from Drack. 

 “And in Drack’s words, I hate you all. Should’ve known that was going to backfire on me,” Sara sighed. “And thank you, Jaal!” she called towards the comm.

“Hey, you asked,” Vetra pointed out.

 “Yeah, but I didn’t want fancy. I mean this is supposed to be low key for as long as we can make it go for… I think. We didn’t really get that far in discussing it. Point is, I really like him and don’t wanna screw this up before it starts.”

Vetra shrugged again. “Well, you’ve got time to work things out.”

Gil nodded. He eased off the couch, but not before dropping a quick kiss on Sara’s cheek. “You’ll do fine, Gorgeous. If it’s one person who can figure out saving the world while having a decent boyfriend, it’s you.”

“It worries me how eager you are to pair me off," Sara objected. 

“Remember when you hit on me the first time we met? I’m trying to spare yourself and as many other blokes as I can from that nonsense," Gil pointed out. 

“You hit on Gil?” Vetra cut in.

“I was dumb and lonely and my gaydar was defrosting,” Sara countered. “And now he’s getting me back with talking about his crush on my brother too much.”

“You are entirely correct,” Gil replied and stood up. “Now shut it and get ready for your damn date.”

“Yes sir.”

Gil and Vetra watched her get up and leave before they turned to each other. 

"You know that If you find out where they're going on that date and try to drop by just to give her shit, she's going to have me try to kill you, right?" Vetra asked. 

"Yeah. That's why I'm gonna go break Scott out of medical and have him do it," Gil replied. 

"Right,  because that's going to end well on either front." 

"...Try it on the second date?" 

"... Better."

"You wanna come along don't you?" Gil beamed. 

"... Absolutely." 

 

* * *

 

Tiran wasn’t sure whether to laugh or feel bad for the human race when he realized the Hyperion had only been on Meridian a matter of days and its people had already set up two separate bars and an all-out food court. He supposed there was more truth to humanity’s rumored obsession with food than he thought. He didn't get it. 

Of course, the newer bar of the two, Ryder’s  (he was sure that she’d have a field day when she found out, and he had to laugh at the fact that he had said they’d name a drink for her and instead she got a whole bar), had been an embarrassingly strategic choice. There were only a handful of people who knew it was even open yet. He had only found out about it when he had broken up a bar fight a handful of days before.  It would’ve afforded them the potential discretion for people reading into it so soon. He hated the word ‘discretion’ the mere moment after he had said it. It wasn’t an affair, and technically it shouldn’t have even been a conflict with their jobs. They arguably weren’t coworkers, their duties just made them overlap a few times.  Tann would most likely be the only one who would find a problem or a loophole to exploit, and he was back on the Nexus.  

He shifted uneasily on the barstool. He had gone there to break up another barfight (the humans were apparently still celebrating their victory and getting rowdy in the process, not that he blamed them for the first part anyway), so he had responded to the call in his usual armor, and by the time he would’ve made it back to his apartment, he would’ve been a fair ways late getting back to the date-drinks-whatever this was. So… this was all he had. He doubted she’d mind.

Still, he had an hour to kill to make up for the time, and he was starting to wonder if the head of APEX hanging around alone in a bar was going to look less questionable than finding something else to do.

Make himself look busy? Like he’s surveilling the place? It would’ve been a blatantly obvious tactic for APEX, but it was that or nothing.

He glanced over his shoulder. He could at least make it look like he was trying hard to be detected and just casually looking around. Shit, this was a bad idea.

Naturally, in doing so he missed the figure approaching from his right.

He turned back to his drink, and then finally sensed the person who had made it about two feet from him without him noticing. He braced himself for trouble.

None came.

Instead, his unannounced companion merely leaned on the bar beside him, and with confidence that Tiran immediately had the urge to punch out of them: “You look like you’re expecting someone.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I agonized over this chapter because Reyes turned out to be harder to write than expected. I'm still not thrilled with 70% of this chapter, but I figured get it out before I delay it any longer. 
> 
> Anyway, since most of the other Kandros/Ryder writers are doing this, if you wanna talk about how Kandros needs to pull a Garrus in the next game and quit the Militia to be on the Pathfinder team, my Tumblr url is watson-a-name.

Tiran risked turning to the visitor. He was human, tall, with eyes that might as well have screamed trouble. The turian had half a mind to open his mouth slightly to remind the bastard that he had what humans would consider fangs if things went south. Every single alarm was going off about the man on sight. He tried to keep his eyes level while giving the man a once over- a skill he had perfected in the last couple of years. The newcomer seemed to be unarmed, and he was lounging languidly enough that the way he was sitting would’ve shown everything if it was hidden. At least he had that going for him.  “Can I help you?”

“I am still… new to this place. Needed a break from getting the lay of the land," the stranger replied. 

“Did they just defrost you, or are you a new vendor?” Tiran asked. 

The man smirked. “Something like the latter.”

Tiran leaned back. “So… black market?”

“Warmer,” the man continued.

Tiran might’ve even laughed at that if he hadn’t gotten such a bad vibe off the guy. Still, he was off the clock, and if the guy was new, he might as well give the guy a break while also just happening to keep tabs on him later. “Careful. I run security for the Nexus- which is this place by extension.”

“And you’re here in the early evening? For shame, someone would think you’re looking to exploit someone’s fun.”

“Clocked out an hour ago. If someone else starts something, it’s my choice whether to step in or not. Unless they start it with me,” he added pointedly.

The man laughed again.

Tiran contained a groan. The guy’s laugh even sounded like he was itching to make trouble.

The man scooted closer to him and leaned on the bar. “You’ll get no trouble from me, I assure you. I’m… off the clock myself.” He extended a hand.  “Reyes Vidal.”

Tiran took his hand. “Tiran Kandros.” In hindsight, he regretted giving him his real name. If he trusted his gut, Reyes wasn’t even the guy’s real name, so why did he give his real one?

Reyes nodded, then  leaned on the bar. “If you’re head of security, you’ve probably met the human Pathfinder.”

Tiran bristled at that. He didn’t like where this was going one bit. “I may have. Why?” He knew Sara didn’t need protecting, but damn it if he didn’t want to go find her to send her on the opposite end of the ship just to avoid this guy. He really, really wished he had at least one gun on him in case this had to get ugly. His hunches were never wrong.  He glanced at Reyes and saw the ghost of a smirk on the man’s face. He must’ve come across as too defensive. _Shit._

“She’s a… friend. I’d  like to see her,” Reyes replied.

Even the way he said ‘friend’ made Tiran’s skin crawl. Tiran might’ve been slow on the upkeep a few times, but he wasn’t stupid. He could read between the lines there too- provided that this guy was actually telling the truth even a little bit. And that cleared everything up quite clearly. That thought process went somewhere fast, and he was near seething with overprotectiveness and maybe even jealousy in a moment.  He had to remind himself that Sara wasn’t exactly his to get protective over. After another couple of moments of thought, he remembered Sara’s engineer friend saying the name ‘Reyes’ the last time he had seen them together. Shit. Maybe the guy was legit. What if he was a boyfriend? Ex or otherwise? “She’s not here. You just missed her.”

Reyes waved the bartender over, and Tiran wasn’t sure how to feel when all it took was a wave of Reyes’ hand and the bartender  poured a glass of whiskey and slid it his way. So this guy had at least passed through here multiple times. Reyes took hold of the glass, then turned his attention back to Tiran. “Really? Because I just saw that mercenary friend of hers and she mentioned that she had a _date_ here later.”

Tiran leaned back. He wasn’t fond of Vetra, but he knew that she held secrets close to her chest, and her loyalty to her friends was undying. Sara was a hot commodity for enemies lately, so there was no way Vetra would’ve just given Sara’s location away loud enough for strangers to hear. Unless she wanted the guy to hear. He knew Vetra wasn't very fond of him, anyway _. Shit again_. He saw the man waiting for elaboration. “Running errands, maybe? Should be planetside by nightfall," he supplied. 

“I’ll wait.”

 _Well, that backfired.  Damn it, you said yourself you’re a head of security, act like it._ “How about you move on with your black market business and I’ll let her know you stopped by?” he asked. He drank from his own glass just to give himself something to do.

“How about you and I stop the games and stop lying to each other?” Reyes countered.

Tiran coughed and set his glass down. “What?” He watched the man down what looked like whiskey without even looking at him.

Reyes looked him up and down for a moment. “You’re noble, friend. I appreciate you trying to defend Sara, but you’re a _terrible_ liar.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“ Don’t I?” Reyes countered. “You’re Sara’s date, I assume. It’s not hard to put the pieces together.” 

“There’s nothing to assume,” Tiran said. When he got an arched eyebrow and a smirk that was so distinctly Sara-like, a pang of jealousy got him right in the gut. Of course there would be some common mannerisms if the pair of them had been an item. One of them had probably picked it up from the other.  “Just a couple of coworkers winding down after getting dragged through the dirt.”

“Literally, not to long ago, if I recall correctly,” Reyes offered. “Not far from this very spot?” he gave Tiran a look so knowing it made the Turian uncomfortable.

Tiran squinted at him in confusion. “How did…?” he stopped when he realized he knew the answer already. When Reyes had first leaned on the bar, he had covered the wrist his omni-tool was attached to with his free one. He must’ve looked him up. Still, the dirt thing was a metaphor, but Reyes had said literally. When the Initiative had first arrived, he had almost crashed to evade a kett ship during the battle, going as far as skimming the ground at one point. It had been a fast recovery, though, so the only one who would’ve known about it was him and… _the pilot of the ship that was behind him that had shot down the Kett ship that had attacked him_. It was then that he realized he knew Reyes’ voice from the comms that day. Reyes was the guy who had dropped in uninvited with forces that admittedly most of their victory was owed to. _Damn._

He was waiting for a date with the potential girlfriend of the guy who had most likely saved his life.

He had been through worse situations, but this was just short of terrible. He downed the rest of his drink, set it on the counter, and considered.  “I-“ Tiran stopped short. “This is a… new thing. We didn't... there was nothing... during that.” Was it the liquor talking or his nerves? Why was he nervous? Why was he blurting out everything?!

Reyes laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “So he speaks. No harm done, I assure you.”

Tiran’s worries skidded to a halt at realizing the human was back to fake smiles and smooth deliveries. He recalled that he still knew nothing about the guy. He could honor the ‘saved my life’ realization, but Reyes still seemed like the type that would stab people in the back easily. He could just be gunning for Sara.

Reyes seemed to look him up and down once before something changed in his eyes and he turned back to the bar. “Does Sara come here often?”

“Isn’t that usually the line you give the girl?” Tiran asked.

Reyes chuckled, then shook his head. “Just… concerned. She has a lot riding on her, and if she comes here to cope…”

Tiran hadn’t thought of that. Most of their bonding experiences involved talking about bars, too.  _Damn it man, it could be another setup_. “I’m not one who would know.”

Reyes stared at him for a moment, then chuckled and downed his drink. “Can we stop this beating around the bush?”

Tiran didn’t know what that meant either, but he knew it wasn’t anything good. “What?”

Reyes smirked. “You… care for her, yes?”

“She’s a good person,” Tiran supplied. “Hard not to.”

Reyes sized him up again. “You seem… good. Your lying could use work if you’re to look after her. She could have worse company. You seem worthy of her.”

Tiran bristled again. There was a threat looming, he just knew it. “And now it’s my turn to tell you to get to the point," he answered. 

Reyes nodded, then leaned towards him. “Simple, I like you, and Sara and I are… _were_ complicated, so there’s no quarrel here. However: If you ever hurt her, I will see to you regretting it,” Reyes countered.  When Tiran was silent, he weighed his drink in his hand. “Are we clear?”

Tiran looked at him before he turned back towards the bar. He had heard threats along those lines too many times to know the human didn’t mean a firm talking to. He could deal with drama that came with an ex, but damn it, he was already tired of this guy’s ego, whether he appreciated the sentiment it stemmed from or not. He downed the rest of his drink in one go, turned back to him and sighed.

* * *

 

Sara tugged at the hem of her leather jacket as she turned the corner towards the bar. She had decided a slightly spruced up version of her casual look would have to do for the ‘date.’ If she was too fancy, people would probably talk- not that they probably weren’t already, if her crew was any indication.

She caught sight of Tiran sitting at the bar. She raised her hand and prepared to announce her arrival when she realized he was stooped over a bit, completely still. From their time together on the Nexus, she had learned that action was usually what he did when he was _furious at someone_.

 _Shit, what time is it? Am I late? Is my new omni-tool weird with the time?_ She glanced at her omni-tool. No, still early. So what had happened? 

She quickened her pace, and then seconds later as the entire bar came into view, she wished she hadn’t. In fact, she wished she could’ve just turned on her heel and immediately run.

Someone was sitting next to Tiran, head tilted slightly up, sitting just as still. And then all thought came to a halt. She knew that profile. Knew that armor. Admittedly knew that hair a little too well.  _Reyes._ _FUCK._ She really wished she had fought for that vodka from earlier.  Still, no one had time to blab about her and Tiran, so what the Hell were the pair of them doing there together? She tried to slow down to figure out just what to do, but her boots squeaked against the floor in the process.   

Tiran turned to face her.

Sara took small comfort in the fact that his body language eased up.  Strangely enough, Reyes hadn’t turned around. She wondered if he was scoping Tiran out if her fears were correct and was just sitting directly next to him to add insult to injury. Still, she knew if Reyes was spying he wasn't stupid enough to sit right there. “Hey, am I…?”

“You’re fine.  Just… let’s relocate this, huh? Meet me by the docks in a bit. I have a better spot we can do this at,” Tiran replied.

Sara frowned. “O… kay?”

"I think you two have some things to work out first,” he finished. He got up from his stool and took a few steps back. He felt bad when Sara looked guilty in return. Somehow it reassured him at the same time- that wasn't a cheater's guilt, that was a 'I have no idea what's going on and there's more to this but I'm just confused' guilt. He gave her shoulder blade a reassuring nudge, just like he had the first time he had left her company, and was satisfied when she seemed to relax under his touch. He gave her one final nod before he walked away. 

Sara turned her attention back to Reyes, who had just turned his head towards them slightly. She edged towards the seat he had vacated. She sat down carefully. She opened her mouth to say something.

Reyes beat her to the first acknowledgement and turned to face her entirely. 

Immediately, all of the introductions that she had listed in the last minute went out the window.

The man was sporting the start of a bloody nose, and the bridge of his nose had a faint discoloration that usually was the telltale sign of a punch to the face. “Reyes?! What the fuck happened?!”. Throwing what caution she was going to show moments before aside, she took his jaw in her hand and pushed it up to examine him closer. “Who did this?!”

He responded, sounding almost rehearsed, like he had practiced making his voice regular while having an injury that would screw up a person's voice or breathing. She didn’t think it was physically possible, but if it was anybody who could do that for the sheer sake of aesthetic, it was him. He even added a laugh that sounded normal for good measure. “Your boyfriend, apparently.”

“What?” Sara practically squawked. She looked in the direction Tiran had gone. She let go of his jaw.  and was doubly confused when Reyes laughed in response, she immediately dropped her hands from his jaw.

 “We had a little chat before you arrived.”

“Yeah no shit, but how…?” she motioned wildly at his face.

Reyes shrugged. “I… gave him a test. Had to make a point about you. He passed.”

“What test?” Sara asked. She had a pretty good idea of what it could’ve entailed, but she still needed to say it. She grabbed a nearby napkin and shook it in his face before he took it and pressed it to his nose.

Reyes tended to the bleeding, then continued. “Making sure you’re in good hands if you ever stop being able to manage on your own.”

“Oh, and that’s your call?” Sara countered.

“We’re friends, Sara. I keep my friends protected.”

“Lay a hand on him in any capacity, and we’re going to have a problem,” Sara countered.

 “Funnily enough, that’s what I told him about you,” Reyes replied. “So I got this in return.”  He waved at his face with his free hand.

“Like you’re not going to spin a ridiculous story about how you got it for it bruises over and people start asking.”

“Defending a lady’s honor? Works for me already.”

She surprised herself when she laughed at the comment and whole-heartedly meant it. “Reyes…”

“You were wrong.”

“What?”

“Your taste in men is far better than ‘the worst.’ From what I found out about him, he’s about as good as you can get around here.”

“How did…?”

“Between the Nexus and here, there’s plenty of chatter about you two everywhere,” Reyes answered.

Sara wanted to believe he was wrong, but he sounded exactly like he had on that rooftop- genuine and honest, and she had believed to this day that had been the most real he had ever been with her. Her stomach turned when just thinking of that made her realize she had possibly essentially cheated on him, if they were really Anything. “Reyes…”

He shook his head. “He’s good for you. Better than I would ever be in any capacity.” When she opened her mouth, he silenced her with a mere look. “I never expected… this to… last long,” he admitted, and her heart hurt when he said it quietly. “We’re on polar opposites of the moral scale. It wasn’t going to last.”

Sara went to protest more for his benefit than hers. He was right, that had been her own logic before as well early on. “Had a good run?” she suggested quietly. Really, it was one of the dumbest things she could come up with, but it seemed to work for him.

He reached over and put his hand over hers.

Sara tried hard not to pull back, figuring she had done as much damage as she could already. She was reasonably surprised when the bastard leaned over, and before she knew it, he had kissed her. There was hardly any force behind it, but it was enough to know that it was a Kiss Goodbye- all  genuine, but almost nauseatingly dramatic.

When he pulled back, she smiled weakly.

Reyes nodded. “Then this is where I leave you. Mind you, I was here for business. Not just you and seeing about your latest admirer.”

She laughed again, relieved it was as carefree as it sounded. “Don’t you go on about this being goodbye either. You’re stuck with me as a friend minus the benefits, or just… technical business partners.”

“And risk you having all the fun across the galaxy? Never,” Reyes agreed. He was silent for a few moments, than sighed. “Drink?” he offered. “Whiskey?”

“Would I have any other drink in your company?” she countered.

Reyes chuckled, then waved the bartender over again.

After she had prepped her drink, Reyes raised his glass to hers. “To the old times, and the new ones to come.”

Sara nodded again, and the pair settled in for drinking in their first companionable silence in a while.

* * *

 

Tiran had never considered himself a jealous turian. He was overprotective of people, civilian, friend or otherwise. It was part of his nature as much of his job. At least, that’s what he kept telling himself after he had decided to hang back a bit by the bar to make sure Sara and ‘Reyes’’ meeting went well. He didn’t hover nearby, he wasn’t that invested or foolish, let alone creepy. He let them have whatever time they needed to do… whatever it was.

He had managed to find a few messages he still needed to respond to on his omni-tool and had responded to them to kill time. He had almost missed Reyes leaving a few minutes later. It unnerved him again that he was looking for the guy and had come a couple of inches of his eyeline away from missing him. He was really losing his touch.

Worse yet, apparently Reyes had him padlocked the entire time, if the knowing look Reyes gave him when  they made eye contact was any indication. He kept the eye contact in some last ditch effort to challenge him as much as he could until Reyes broke it to go down another hallway.

A matter of moments later, his omni-tool pinged with the arrival of a new message, and Tiran could only imagine what would greet him.

**_I meant it. Break her heart, I will be there to pick up the pieces and take her back from you. Hurt her, and you will not live long enough to regret it.  
_ _-R_ **

Tiran snorted- he couldn’t help it. He was a bit unnerved by the fact that Reyes had found his contact info so easily. Still, at least this time around he wasn’t around when the threat came up. And damn it, if Sara inspired that much loyalty in a man that had questionable morality, it said a lot about that relationship, whatever its definition. He had already punched the guy to prove his 'don't threaten me' point. Now he could at least humor Reyes. He reached to respond, then hesitated before he threw caution to the wind and did so.

**_A bit dramatic considering we just started, but duly noted.  
_ _-T_ **

 He sent it and looked up, just in time for Sara to enter the area. He waved her down, and she hesitated before walking over wearing an apologetic smile.

“So… I should totally explain that, shouldn’t I?”

“I got most of the picture,” Tiran admitted. “Doesn’t seem your type, though.”

“Oh, you’re in the vast majority thinking that,” Sara nodded.

“Well, I doubt you’d be Sara Ryder if you didn’t go against the grain that way,” Tiran countered.

Her answering smile conveyed as much relief as he had ever seen on her face.  He stepped back, then motioned at one of the nearby doors. “Come on. I told you I had a new place in mind where no space pirates will interrupt us.”

“Ugh, don’t even say that when he’s still in this atmosphere. Someway, somehow he’ll manage to catch wind of you giving him that title and it’ll inflate his ego more. But yes, by all means, lead the way.”

“Will do.”


	8. Chapter 8

“I can hear you thinking, you know.”

Sara looked ahead at Tiran. She had been quite wrapped up in her own thoughts as she let him lead her to… wherever they were headed, but she didn’t think she had been that obvious. Usually it had been Scott out of the pair of them that thought loudly. “Wha- oh, it’s nothing.”

Tiran, to his credit, wasn’t convinced at all. “Mm hm.”

She scoffed. “Okay, so I know we totally just said no explanation was needed with Reyes, and I know this totally sounds like I’m hung up on the guy…”

“But…?”

“I feel like I owe it to you. I just… he’s a wheeler dealer and I want you to know, from my mouth, it’s… officially over. It was a thing, now it’s not. He’s… “

“A self-righteous ass?” Tiran finished.

“Exactly,” Sara agreed. “I just… hope that didn’t fuck this up. Because of his and my history, or if he decides to be a jealous bastard and tries something.”

“I just headbutted him and got away with it, and somehow it also put me in his favor, and he’s flying away now, and you’re here,” Tiran mused. “I think we’re good on all counts.”

“You sure?”

“… Do you _want_ me to go storming off in a jealous huff?” Tiran countered, although to Sara’s relief there was a playful tone behind it.

“No, no. Fine, but…I just… I just realized that… there’s a lot with him and Kadara as a whole that would make… this weird if we chose to ignore it,” she motioned between them. “So…”

Tiran sighed, then held out his arm to stop her from continuing walking. He steered her over to a nearby staircase and eased her down. “I highly doubt we’re gonna be in any condition to do that little exploration I planned.”

Sara sighed. “Sorry, it would make me feel better if we got a couple of things… out there before we start anything.”

“A couple?” Tiran asked, but the tone was teasing again.

“Literally. And we just got one of them over with. The second’s… kind of related.”

“Go on,”

“Sloane,” she answered. When he merely tilted his head to indicate he was listening carefully, she sighed. “There’s… actually Reyes started a rumor it was me who killed her, and I need you to know it wasn’t, considering you guys have a history.”

“Well, knowing you and after meeting him, I kind of figured he did it,” Tiran answered.

“I mean, it wasn’t technically him either. He hired a sniper, but it was still his hit.”

Tiran nodded carefully. “I… still doesn’t surprise me. And she and I _had_ a history. She… she had my job, I was her second for a while, but… I read all the reports. I knew she turned into a tyrant. While I don’t exactly see just how having Reyes in charge improves things, it was clearly a needed change.”

“He’s an ass, but he’s an ass who likes a little more control in a place that was anarchy central and a blatant abuse of power. I… trust Reyes that much,” Sara admitted. “I mean it’s all for his benefit but the death toll’s not in the teens per week anymore.”

Tiran nodded. “That’s good enough for me. Besides, I’m not really the one who would have to deal with it from this point on, anyway.”

“Fair point.”

“And Kaetus-“

“Asshole, but he doesn’t deserve to die, so thanks for preventing that for now. He tries anything as far as revenge goes, I’ll deck him in the face for you, too,” Tiran assured her. 

“My hero,” Sara replied. She threaded her arm around his bent elbow and rested her head on his shoulder.

“So… we good?” Tiran asked.

“Yeah” Sara agreed.

Tiran laughed. “Imagine, the mighty Sara Ryder’s a worrywart.”

“Hey, after all the shit I go through, I want this to go smooth,” she countered. She nudged his shoulder for good measure.

“So everything is smooth sailing from there after we get over that bump? You calling me easy, Ryder?”

“I mean, you hardly complained when I got you up against that wall in the shuttle,” Sara teased. 

“I mean, it could’ve just been the adrenaline…” Kandros countered.

“We’ll have to see, won’t we?” Ryder replied.

He narrowed his eyes at her, then nodded over his shoulder and led her back down another hallway. He stopped them at the nearest elevator and ushered her inside.  He hit the button for the fourth floor.

She made a face. “Since when do we have four floors here?”

“Since the new installment began. In the meantime…”

The doors slid closed. When the elevator lurched and started to ascend. Sara suddenly felt lightheaded a the sudden change and stumbled. 

Tiran caught her when she swayed his way. “Hey, you alright?”

She blinked up at him, and the dizziness faded. “Uh, yeah, that was… weird. Just haven’t been here long enough and haven’t been in an elevator in a while. Different pressure level, maybe?”

Tiran didn’t look convinced.

She still appreciated that he didn’t let go of her until she had gotten her sea legs back and looked a little more focused than she had in the seconds after it.

There wasn’t much there, just a clear floor and railing not unlike the Nexus. There were a few scaffoldings around the area around rooms currently in construction. The only developed bit was the glass patio overlooking the other main floors that provided a decent view of the jungle area across from where the Hyperion had come down. There was a strange peace to it that Sara immediately appreciated, and she had a feeling that was Tiran’s point. She walked over and leaned on one of the railings to settle in comfortably.

Tiran took the spot next to her. “It’s not much. They’re working on more apartments for the sleepers who are waking up and expanding the businesses. But that’ll take a while since they’re focusing on the first floors for now. So for now you can have your own little quiet private deck to escape for however long you want. We both know you could use it.”

She laughed in agreement, then looked out at the treeline. “I wonder what Stumpy’s doing right now.”

“Probably terrorizing poor innocent little herbivores,” Tiran sighed.

Sara laughed. “I kinda wanna find out when I get some free time.”

“Bring a bigger gun and waterproof gear,” Tiran countered without missing a beat.

“What, and have you miss out on the fun?”

Tiran laughed. “It’s ridiculous, but that whole thing made me kinda miss my glorified desk job.”

“I kinda know what you mean. That was a giant spike on the usual excitement chart. That was the stress of one entire days-long mission in the span of ten minutes. I wish I had a desk job to go with this.”

“The perils of being promoted without your initial consent,” Tiran mused.

Sara laughed in agreement, then shrugged. “Ain’t that the truth. Then again, we probably wouldn’t have it any other way, huh?”

“No, I guess not.”

They stood in companionable silence for a while, just enjoying having the other around. Sara was the first to speak again. “This little tour probably qualifies as the nicest pre-date gift I’m ever gotten,” she teased.

Tiran tilted his head. “Humans give… pre-date gifts?”

She stared for a moment, then laughed and shook her head. “Uh, no, not… exactly. I mean, they can, but it’s not a customary thing for every date. Usually it’s flowers here and there or something.”

“Flowers. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Sara smiled and looked back out over the cliff. “Do Turians do anything like that? Or, ya know, decent Turians like yourself?”

“Bad experiences with dating my kind before, huh?” Tiran asked.  

“One was a cheater, the other one just ignored my calls after a while."

“Idiots,” Tiran provided.

“Mm hm. But it’s  not just Turians. I’ve had bad luck in men with general. I’m about to shoot myself in the foot with what we discussed, but Reyes was probably one of the best. That should tell you all you need to know.”

“Eh, he’s a criminal but he seems to respect people who wanna do right for others. Have to respect him right back for that,” Tiran admitted.  

Sara nodded, then sighed. “Don’t worry. Not gonna hold it against you. You’re already the bar-setting one and we’ve barely started this little… thing.”

“Good to know I have to put minimal effort into this, then,” Tiran countered.

“Well, I mean if _this_ is minimal, I might just get over-spoiled if you put any more in,” she replied. “All the others might get jealous, though.”

“Let them,” Tiran said.

She laughed at that, then turned to face him and scooted over so he was directly in front of her. “Hm. You beat up an old ex of mine who threatened you, you found this very romantic spot… we’re all alone… really, if this is minimal, I’m in for it.” She leaned up so their mouths were only a couple of inches apart. “We never did get to finish our little moment back on that shuttle.”

“No, we really didn’t…” Tiran agreed.

She felt him reach up in order to rest a hand on her hip. She closed the last bit of distance between them and kissed him. She had just finished looping her arms around his neck when her omni-tool gave off a beep for incoming communications.

“ _Sar? Sar, answer me. Now_.”

While Sara scoffed at Gil’s interruption, Tiran chuckled, more understanding than anything and pulled back.

Sara reached back around and hit the return comm button. “Not _now_ , Gil.”

“ _Babe, believe me, no one wants you to get laid more than I do. We all know you bloody need it,_ ” Gil began on the other end. He apparently heard her gasp of protest because he started up again, louder and quicker. “ _It’s not business related! … Exactly. It’s about Scott!”_

That got her attention. Gil sounded _worried_.  She looked apologetically at Tiran.

The Turian, to his credit, nodded in understanding. He merely backed up a step and leaned back on the railing, giving her hip a reassuring stroke.

“Is he okay?” Sara asked.

“No. Harry just came onto the ship to find you. Said Scott collapsed just a couple of minutes ago. Might have something to do with the implant and the trauma from before.”

Sara’s heart sunk. Shit, that must’ve been the moment in the elevator. Her and Scott’s Twin Connection had always been more on the physical end than mental like so many others she had heard about. If one got an injury, the other would feel it somehow. If he had passed out, there was probably a headrush- the exact thing she had gotten in the elevator before. She should’ve known. “God, I’m such an idiot. Shit,” she sighed. “Did Harry save time and keep him on the ship or is he back in the medbay here?”

“Here.”

“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” she replied.

“Right,” Gil answered. The background static died, so she took it as Gil hanging up. She looked at Tiran and opened her mouth.

Tiran nudged her shoulder with his. “Don’t worry about it. The both of you went through a lot during that ordeal. There were bound to be complications. The two of you are close, and he’s the only family you’ve got left. I’m willing to come after family on the priority list.”

She beamed and bolted forward in order to give him one last kiss. “Thank you. Someday duty won’t call, I swear.”

“Next time there won’t be a potentially jealous ex showing up, either,” Tiran teased.  He motioned at the elevator. “Come on, I’ll walk you back.”

“Sounds good. “

* * *

 

When they had reached the Hyperion’s medbay, Tiran’s goodbye was a quick nod and a pat on her shoulder blade, and she must’ve looked like a lovestruck fool when she recognized it as his farewell from the day they had met. She waved back, then went inside.  She spotted Scott, unconscious on one of the cots in the middle, with Harry hovering over him. “You getting a crippling sense of déjà vu, too?” she asked.

Harry looked up at her and smiled lightly. “Yes, but he’s got better odds this time around. I think.  I’m hoping this is just overexertion from being a Ryder and pushing himself just too far to have it be a problem. But after the implant fiasco, I wanted to make sure he was okay and there wasn’t any brain damage we missed before.”

Sara’s heart sunk again. “And?”

Harry shoot his head. “Nothing yet. I really hope it’s just all the energy he shouldn’t be using. It should be,” he elaborated. “But if it turns out to be just that, sorry about ruining your date, then.”

“How- did Gil tell you?!”

Harry laughed. “No. Technically you just did… well, confirmed it anyway. I watched you grow up, kiddo. I know your body language and just saw you with that Turian. You’re quite taken with him.”  

She crossed her arms over her chest and went red in the face. Then, “Yeah, fine, I kinda am. What’s your point?”

Harry raised his eyebrows and scoffed playfully. “No point. Just happy for you.”

“You’re trying to distract me,” Sara pointed out.

“I just don’t want you to worry about your brother as much. You’ve got a lot on your plate. I called you to make sure nothing went wrong with you either since you were… linked with all this. He got the brunt of it since he was new to the experience, but I’d still like to make sure.”

“Just got a little lightheaded. I think that was the twin connection more than the link, but I didn’t even think about that.”

Harry’s smile faded and he immediately pointed to the cot next to Scott. “On. Now.”

She sighed dramatically in response, but obeyed all the same. “So… if this turns out to be nothing, I’ve got a theory about how we can get Scott to take it easy.”

Harry rolled his eyes playfully. “I’m not gonna like this, am I?”

“Maybe?” she flinched when Harry put some mystery device over her forehead. One of the monitors started beeping away.

“Go on.”

“… Let me take him on the Tempest with me," Sara suggested. 

“What?! N-“

“Hey, you just grouped all us Ryders into one. In your experience, we’re more manageable when we think we’re winning a debate, right?”  

Harry crossed his arms over his chest and stared.

“Force him to take it easy for a couple of days from this, then put him on the ship so he thinks he’s adventuring and he gets what he wants, then  he’s not as ornery when I tell him he has to take it easy. And the 'suggestion' to take it easy is coming from his twin and not our godfather, you get me?"

“I get you. I’m just not sure about it.”

“We’ll have Lexi, if something happens, she’s the second best care that he’ll have in this galaxy, second only to you, so..." 

“Flattery will get you nowhere.”

“But you know I’m right, right?”

Harry sighed. “It could work. But what happens when he decides that the Tempest is his new normal and he starts sneaking onto your missions?”

“Then we find him, bring him back to the ship and put Drack on guard duty,” Sara answered without missing a beat.

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’ve thought about this already.”

“Of course I have, the guy’s my brother. We’re the Ryder Twins, we’re better together.”

Harry sighed. He took one glance at Scott’s monitor, then hers. “You’re as healthy as you’ve been since you officially made it out of ‘recovery’ territory, and the same for him.” He looked her way, then pushed the device that was hovering over her forehead away. He took note of her hopeful look. “What, are you waiting for my permission to start this ridiculous plan?”

“Kinda sorta.”

“You’re a grown woman and it’s your ship. And since when do you need my blessing for anything?” he asked.

“Since I’m still iffy with being my own boss and you’re the closest thing to a father we have,” Sara replied without missing a beat.

Harry stared at her for a while, then sighed again. “Fine. I’ll get the transfer documents ready. Just… don’t make me regret this, alright? If something happens to either of you and then we get that cure for your mother and wake her up, she’ll have my head.”

Sara smirked. “That’s… also kinda why I’m asking. To have that buffer.”

Harry scoffed, then shook his head. “Don’t make me regret this.”

 “I won’t.”

 


	9. Chapter 9

Scott looked up and admired the view to behold outside of Sara’s bedroom windows. Seeing space as a whole and stars and planets that weren't artificially rendered was the nicest change he had been through in years. The large snowstorm on the planet that they could see from orbit was one of the most breathtaking things he had ever seen. It even put half of the things he had seen on guard duty at the Citadel to shame. He sensed Sara come up beside him and reached out to squeeze her shoulders. "Breaking me out was totally worth it, just for this." 

"Thought you might think that," Sara agreed. "So, where do you want to go first?" 

"The new guy gets to call the shots?" Scott asked.

 "Well, within reason. I've got business on Voeld, Eos, a bit on Kadara..." 

"You do realize those names really do nothing for me, right? I've just seen them on a screen," Scott replied. "But, y'know, I still haven't met that Reyes guy..." 

"It's over between him and I," Sara dismissed. 

"Still feel like I need to make up for lost time with a shovel talk or two," Scott countered. 

"Yeah, well, considering he'd probably kill you on principle for threatening him, no. I'm not losing my second favorite man in the universe." 

"Second? Who beat me?" Scott asked. 

"Gil, obviously," 

Scott smirked. "Yeah, well, I can see why." 

She gagged. "Ew,"

"What? I heard that finding him interesting runs in the family." 

"It was one time, he was nice about it, and now we're best friends, and I'm his wingman. I keep the riff raff away. Spoiler alert: you're the riff raff in this scenario." 

"Oh, fuck you!" Scott laughed. He turned and dropped down onto the couch. He closed his eyes, leaned his head back and opened them again- only to look right into the eyes of a pyjak that was staring back down at him from the rafters. "You've got vermin," he reported. 

"Hey, the hamster's name is Jim!" Sarah protested. 

"Not the hamster," Scott replied. He pointed up. 

Sara followed his finger. "And that's Bobo," 

Scott wasn't sure which to focus on- the fact that the pyjak's name was Bobo, or the fact that it was apparently a pet as well. He sighed. "Hey, little guy!" he called, figuring the questions could wait. 

Bobo squeaked and climbed down onto the desk to get a better look at him. He made his way over to Scott and gave him an experimental sniff. 

Scott let him do so, then outstretched a hand slowly and gave him a scratch behind the ears. 

Bobo gave an apparently pleased squeak and settled right into his lap. Scott laughed and resumed scratching its ear. 

"Pathfinder, Reyes Vidal has been attempting to contact you repeatedly. He has left five messages on your omni-tool, and has just tried to ping the ship," SAM reported from the PA. 

Sara glanced at her omni-tool on the desk. The new one had been digging into her wrist something awful so whenever she was technically off duty she went without it. "And why didn't he succeed in pinging it?" she asked as she walked over to it. 

"Unknown. We were hailed, but the frequency cut out." 

Sara frowned. Reyes wasn't one to hail the ship. Whatever it was must've been bad. She powered on the omni-tool and checked the messages. 

 **I need a favor.  - Reyes**  
  
**Come to Kadara ASAP - Reyes**

**It's about Kaetus - Reyes**

**I can't say much on channels that can be intercepted - Reyes**

**Just get here as soon as you can.  Please. - Reyes**

Sara squinted at the messages. Something seemed... off all over again. This was Reyes. Messages that were so short weren't his style. Wording was wrong. This either wasn't actually Reyes or he was in a rush. And he had mentioned Kaetus, the same bastard who had threatened all of them if he had ever gotten out of prison. It read like a trap. But was it really Reyes setting it up? She immediately started mulling over options. 

Scott peeked over her shoulder. "Well, you were all right about him being dramatic. He's that needy and you two are over?" Scott asked. "Hate to break it to you, but-" 

"Scott, shut up," Sara hissed. She waved her hand in front of his face for good measure. "SAM, is there any unusual activity at Kadara? In the prison, anywhere?" 

"No crime reported, but most of the channels are silent when they usually are broadcasting at this time." 

Considering how big of a hub it was, that was another red flag. Of course, considering she was known for handling bigger business, she figured acting on two red flags alone would be bad. But damn it, she had been the selfless hero so much, she was entitled to take a personal case. And if something was up with Reyes, all of Kadara was in danger. "Shit..." she muttered to herself. She looked at Scott. "Looks like our first stop is going to be Kadara after all." She turned to the comm on the wall and told the crew and SAM as much. 

"You're scared," Scott realized. "What do you think is going on?" Scott asked. 

"Well, either Reyes is in danger so Kadara's in danger, or Reyes is baiting me and is about to stab me in the back." Part of her hated herself for suddenly figuring that was the safest bet. She had thought he was above pettiness, whether it was over inter-galaxy politics or their relationship change or not. 

"So... you know it's a trap and you're going there guns blazing?" Scott crossed his arms. 

"Damn straight," Sara confirmed with a nod. When Scott just stared at her, she frowned. "What?" 

Scott beamed and uncrossed his arms in order to hug her. "My big sister is finally getting reckless. It only took twenty years." 

"Shut up," Sara countered. 

Scott smirked, then put his hands up in surrender. "I'm coming with you," he said. 

"No, you're not. This is... Kadara might be even worse than Omega, pal. You've had too many near death experiences this year." 

"And you haven't?" Scott shot back. 

"I've got SAM full time. You don't." 

"You know, we used to be the Ryders. We kicked ass and took names together. Plural. You can't stop me," Scott replied. 

Sara stared at him. "You're gonna find a way to sneak off the ship if I tell you no, aren't you?" 

"Damn straight," he echoed her from before. 

It was Sara's turn to cross her arms over her chest. "Promise me, first sign of serious trouble, you get back on the ship. This starts as recon- quiet recon." 

"You're gonna go into the belly of the beast on your own?" he asked. 

Sara set her jaw and gave him a pointed look. "Promise me," 

Scott sighed. "Promise." 

"Good," Sara nodded. "We'll be there in a couple of hours. I just... need to call in a favor for this first. Hang tight, I'll call you when we're landing." 

"Fine." 

* * *

 

Gil stared at Sara. She had come to him when they were about ten minutes from landing in Kadara. "So... let me get this straight. You want me, the engineer, to come on a potentially dangerous mission... to look pretty and keep your equally gorgeous brother occupied?" he recalled. 

Sara rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah, but now you just went and made it sound creepy," she countered. 

"Well, congratulations, you made me feel _used._ I mean I was honest about what team I batted for because I thought I could trust you with that information." 

Sara flinched. Okay, maybe she deserved that... a lot. "Okay, yeah, it's a dick move. I'm sorry, I just need-" she stopped short when Gil cupped her face, yanked her forward and planted a sloppy kiss on her forehead. He pulled back, and she blinked up at him. "... What?" 

"I'm joking. 'Course I'll do it, you loon. It's about time my ability to charm anyone could be put to use." 

She groaned playfully. 

"Answer me this, first though: Does 'Gil Ryder' or 'Scott Brodie' sound better?" 

"Not gonna answer that." 

"You love me." 

"No, I don't." 

"Lies." 

* * *

 

When they touched down at the port, Sara immediately went into investigation mode. Nothing seemed entirely amiss. There were clearly small operations of questionable legality going on on at the dock itself, but that was nothing new. People were fighting, both verbally and physically. She looked at Vetra. The Turian was the only one of the main group that she trusted with this particular task. She knew Vetra would know what to look for, even with such little information. And there was the fact that she wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet in Reyes if it came to it. 

Vetra returned the look. "I don't see anything out of the ordinary. Do you see your boyfriend anywhere?" 

"No?" 

"Where to first, then?" Vetra asked. 

"HQ. If anybody we could most likely trust knows anything, it would be Keema. And she'd at least level with us if trouble was brewing," Sara explained. "Keep your guns on hand, though." 

Gil grunted uneasily behind her, but unholstered his.

Scott, on the other hand, hadn't even bothered to put it in his holster.

Sara wasn't quite sure if that was a good thing or not. She led the way to HQ. She couldn't stop thinking about how to even breach the topic. _I received some strange messages. You want to tell me what they were about? Be my second opinion that this doesn't sound like Reyes. Did you know he sent me these? What's going on?_ There was no easy way of putting it. If she was too aggressive and they were innocent, she'd lose any good standing they had. If they were guilty and she questioned them too much, they'd probably be more dead then they were springing the trap in the first place. 

The four of them were a few yards away from the entrance when the doors slid open. Sara stopped short when she realized there was too much space between them and the door for it to have opened on its own, and there was no one on either side. It didn't sit well with Vetra either, judging by the fact that she stuck her arm out to stop the men from walking. Sara studied the door for a while, and then saw the one directly above it was wide open with no one around, too. It was then that she heard a distant, high pitched beeping. It kept getting faster, and the realization of what it was hit her like a punch to the gut. "GET DOWN!" she barked, just as an explosion rocked the building.

The resulting shockwave was enough to knock the entire group off of their feet. She hit the ground hard and scrambled to cover herself from the rubble that seemed Hell bent on covering them. Seconds ticked by like hours as she waited for anything else to happen. She expected another explosion or more rubble falling, but there was nothing. Her ears were ringing from the deafening sound of the explosion, but the sound of panicked people screaming made it through the haze. It took her a moment to realize that the entire group was close enough to the building that by rights they should've been dead from the blast. SAM had probably kept her safe, but what about the others? She pushed herself up on shaky arms in order to look at her companions. 

Scott was awake but clearly dazed- perhaps SAM's influence as well. Vetra was also hardly worse for wear.

She had been knocked back into a pile of clothing being sold and by some miracle it had broken her fall.

Gil, on the other hand wasn't moving. 

She dragged herself over to him, heart sinking all the way. "Gil?! Gil!" she shook his arm and came back with no response. "No. No no no no no. You can't fucking die on me when I'm the one that brought you here for a stupid reason. Come on." She shook him again, then felt his pulse. She couldn't find it for a few seconds. Her heart sunk more. She had gotten her best friend and the father of a kid who wasn't even born yet killed. She bit her lip to hold in the sob that definitely would've been the end of her composure. Thankfully, she felt his pulse a moment later and released the sob, grateful that it was a relieved one now. His pulse faint and damn near unnoticeable, but it was _there_. She turned back to Scott, who had started to get to his feet. She bolted over to him. She wasn't sure which twin moved first, but it was a mess of hands trying to examine each other. Scott seemed particularly interested in a spot on the front of her forehead, and he also had a gash on the side of his. She squeezed his arms reassuringly. "I can manage! Can you?" she called. 

It took Scott a moment, but he nodded. 

Sara nodded back, then looked back at the building. The windows were shattered, smoke and flames were billowing out of it- it was bad. A moment later there was a distant explosion- one that sounded like it came from the Underground. "Reyes..." she realized. Weird breakup and royal pain in her ass aside, she still cared about the guy. This had clearly been an attack on the Charlatan. Part of her wondered if he hadn't been the one who had set it up since he had invited her here and the place had been leveled right when she reached the area. Another part of her insisted that Reyes was a little too much of a showman to blow up his own stomping grounds to eliminate her. She glanced at her omni-tool. Part of the screen was broken and the lights were flashing on and off, but it was useable. She fired off a message to him, asking where he was and tried not to panic. She sent another message back to the ship to have Lexi come down for Gil. 

She tried to compose herself. She was thankful that the fact that it was the Charlatan's new stomping grounds that went up in a blaze. It eliminated all of the theories that Reyes was probably trying to kill her. He would probably do it face to face, and also she doubted he'd risk his apparent home base for it. 

Her theory was confirmed further when there was another explosion that sounded like it came from the Slums. And if there was an attack on the Charlatan's place and then what was most likely Tartarus, somebody knew about Reyes. And they weren't happy. She needed to find him. She waited until she saw Lexi hurrying over with a couple of people and waved in Gil's direction before she headed for the stairs to the slums. Scott and Vetra barely managed to keep up with her. 

They made it to the main platform, dodging people who were running out towards the non-settled area. She was halfway up the stairs towards the club when someone who had been hiding behind a pillar covered her mouth with their hand, looped an arm around her waist and yanked her behind the crates beside it. She was dimly aware that the gun at her hip had gone missing in the brief confusion. She heard Scott was suddenly yelling at someone, and she scrambled to fight off whoever had her, throwing her elbows and feet back. 

"Easy, it's me. It's me." 

Deep, accented. _Reyes_. She let out a sharp exhale, turned and threw her arms around him. "I thought you were dead!" she blurted. 

Reyes returned the hug, then pushed her back to arms length so he could look her over. "And I you. Can you call your attack dog off, now?" Reyes asked. 

Sara turned around. Poor Scott still had her gun trained on Reyes, but now he clearly didn't know what to do. "Scott, put it down. This is Reyes Vidal. I'm pretty sure he's the target." 

"Or he just tried to kill us," Scott countered. 

"And throw away all I had with the clubs?" Reyes countered. Sara felt a laugh bubble up in her throat at her theory most likely being confirmed. Still, he was a liar. He could've been playing them. She still wanted to play it like they were on his side. If he was being honest, it was the right place to be. If not, the ball would be in their court. 

Scott looked at his sister, and when she nodded, he sighed and put his gun down. 

"What do we know?" Sara asked Reyes. 

"Nothing. Next to the fact that Kaetus has been missing since this morning," Reyes replied.

"SAM didn't report anything like that-"

"Because I wanted to keep it quiet," Reyes countered.  

Sara swore under her breath. "Does he have that many friends that could do this?" 

"Exactly what I've been trying to figure out," Reyes agreed. He glanced at Scott again and sized him up. "You get bored of the turian already?"

Sara gagged. "Ew, no. Why is everyone obsessed with grossing me out today? Reyes, this is Scott." 

The mixed look Reyes had been giving him suddenly faded, replaced by the air of arrogance and his Charlatan stance. "Ah. The other Ryder. Good to finally meet you," Reyes extended a hand. 

Scott stared at it for a moment. He let the answering silence grow uncomfortable for a moment before he shook it. "Yeah. So... you a business owner?" he asked.

 Reyes smirked. "Something like that," 

"Reyes," Sara warned him. 

Reyes rolled his eyes. "I'm the Charlatan, if your sister hasn't already told you. Best crime lord this place has seen yet. And... apparently someone wasn't quite happy about that," he said. 

Sara looked back towards the main part of the city, then frowned. "Keema! Is she-" 

Reyes nodded. "She's fine. She was checking on a delivery at the docks. You probably walked right passed her," Reyes assured her. "Did you lose any of yours?" 

"Almost. I called our doctor in to get him." 

Reyes considered the information, then nodded. "Your ship isn't going anywhere until we figure this out." 

"But it looks like you were the target," Sara replied. 

"Yes, but Kaetus supposedly knew about _us_ , clearly doesn't know about what's happened in the last week, and might be out for what he perceives could be a weakness of mine," Reyes explained. 

Sara's heart sunk a bit when the loaded silence and the look he gave her just about screamed that she still fell under that category. "Then I need security by my ship." 

"Already arranged," Reyes replied. 

Scott looked between them, feeling very forgotten suddenly. "So where do we start?" he asked. 

Sara looked his way. " _You_ don't start anywhere. _You_ are going back onto the ship and staying there. I brought you on board so you can take it easy. I had a plan for you to stay busy here. But now... yeah, no. You're not going anywhere on this. You're grounded, and before you call me Mom, yeah, you're damn right I am in this case." 

"And I repeat, you have a near death experience every day!" Scott protested. 

"Exactly. I do.  You, on the other hand... this is new, and you're still recovering. I shouldn't have caved before anyway," she said pointedly. Then, suddenly far more careful and less teasing, "Keep Gil company for me." 

Scott opened his mouth to protest further, but her worried look stopped him. "Hey, he's gonna be fine. I have a feeling even subconsciously your people will be terrified to leave you in any capacity." 

She smiled weakly. "Alright, come on. We're regrouping at the ship 'cause I have a feeling it's the safest place we can be right now," she instructed. She took Scott by the arm, and when Reyes took a step back, she took his arm as well. "You too. The last thing I need is for you to disappear." 

"Because you think I'm behind this, or because you're worried about me?" Reyes asked. 

She let go of his arm to punch him in the chest, then took his arm back. "You pick. Now let's go. We'll go the back way just in case, but Reyes-" 

"Keep my head down. I know." 

* * *

 

By the time they had gotten back on the Tempest, Keema was already in the meeting room waiting for them. Sara practically flew into her arms. "I'm happy you're okay," she said. And she was. Keema might as well have been an older sister to her as of late. Her heart would just about break if this turned out to be a ploy. 

"So am I. I saw you go towards HQ before. I thought you were done for when I heard that explosion," Keema replied. "Reyes here messaged me in a panic to find you." 

Sara's head shot up. "Messages! Shit, that's right! Reyes, were any of these you?" she brought up the messages on her omni-tool and moved over to him so he could see them. 

"Asking for a favor was. The others, no," Reyes replied. He took off his omni-tool. He spotted a repair kit on the floor below them and went to retrieve it. He came back with a screwdriver and opened up the omni-tool's back panel and proceeded to rip out the wiring. When the other stared at him, he shrugged. "In case it was tracked as well as hacked," he explained. When they continued to stare, he threw his hands out. "I know I'm not the most trustworthy person, but come on, I'm answering all your questions so far." 

'What was the favor about?" Sara asked. 

"The favor was acting as my date for a party I was attending to get information from a few old Outcast sympathizers," Reyes explained. "But it's just as well you didn't respond, considering if you had and if Kaetus hadn't escaped, we would've been in Tartarus when it went up." S

"If he even escaped," Sara replied after a moment, and he nodded in agreement. "Alright, I need to know everything. New enemies, old enemies, you name it." 

"By the sound of it, it could've been an attack on you, so we need the same from you," Keema replied. 

"You'll get it," Sara nodded. 

"Then you'll have ours, too," Keema answered, and went to work pulling up files on her omni-tool in order to share them with the ship's computer. 

Reyes sighed and looked at Sara. "Investigating as a team. Just like old times, hm?" 

"Sounds like it. Just turn down the seduction attempts this time, huh?" 

"Please. We've been over this: I'll be a perfect gentleman. Besides, I already contacted Kandros to tell him you're safe before word of this got out." 

"You _what?"_   She hissed. Her omni-tool gave off a beep from an incoming message. Sure enough, it was from Tiran. 

**Do I want to know why Vidal sent me a message about you being safe and then didn't tell me anything outside of 'look out for news reports out of Kadara'? Are you alright?**

She huffed and typed out a response. 

**Fine, all things considered. Someone's either after him or me. Some guy set up bombs on Kadara. Don't know much yet. I've got this handled, don't worry. Get back to you soon. Might need your help to hide Reyes' body after this, at this rate though.**

She felt bad leaving it like that and keeping it simple, but she started to wonder if Reyes had the right idea in destroying his omni-tool. Still, she knew Tiran wasn't going to come running to help, so there was that. 

The omni-tool beeped again. 

**Gladly. Stay safe. If you need anything on the legal end of things in the meantime, let me know.**

She stiffled a scoff of appreciation. Leave it to him to come up with that after accepting all she said. She sent him an affirmation, then turned back to the others. "Alright then. Where do we start?" 

 


	10. Chapter 10

The moment he heard Gil groan after waking up, Scott scooted closer in the chair Lexi had provided him. Sara had barely left her friend’s side when she wasn’t talking business with Reyes, and she had finally, finally turned in to attempt to get sleep. Granted, it was him who had insisted on it and shoved her into her room and locked it from the outside. He had promised to keep an eye on Gil and Reyes, and that was that.

When Gil blinked blearily at him, he smiled. “Hey. How you feelin’?”

“Like an entire building got dropped on my body?” Gil croaked.

Scott’s smile widened. “Well, you’re not wrong.”

“ ‘S everyone okay?” Gil asked.

Scott nodded. “Scratched up and shaken, but you definitely got the worst of it. “You almost died and cost us half of the latest shipment of resources to get you back,” Scott shot back playfully. When Gil looked panicked for a moment, he realized how bad of an idea it was. “Totally lying. Lexi got you stabilized within a few hours with no big issues and at… essentially little to no cost. Your body was just apparently Hell bent on sleeping it off.”

“ ‘We’? ‘Lexi’? You’re adapting fast,” Gil noted.

“Yeah, well, when you’re basically a member of the crew by blood, you learn quickly,” Scott countered.

Gil chuckled, then flinched against the pain it caused. “So… how fares Kadara’s resident asshole king?”

“Proving to be not such an asshole so far. He’s behaving and offering any info on any attacks or leads that he knows about. He won’t let Sara out of his sight- and vice versa, mind you. The security locks are changed on all the doors but storage.”

Gil nodded after a moment, then groaned and leaned back. “So he’s here.  If he tries to get anywhere near engineering-“

Scott waved his hand. “That was the first security code she changed. Don’t worry. This place is safe. And… well, from what I understand of how he usually is, Reyes is playing pretty nicely. Hasn’t even commented on Drack volunteering as his escort around the ship.”  

“Bound to mean he’s just letting us warm up to him before he betrays us all,” Gil countered.

Scott stared at him, then leaned back. “What the fuck kind of person was my sister dating?” Scott asked.

Gil snorted, then hissed in pain when the action made everything hurt. “That, my friend, is the biggest mystery of the year…. You know, outside of ‘What the actual hell are the Remnant?’”

The pair chuckled, then glanced up when the entryway door slid open.

Lexi was on the other side. She glanced up from her omni-tool and sighed. “Ah. Scott. As eager to listen to my instructions as your sister, I see.”

“Hey, I think technically my sister outranks you, and she gave me the orders to keep an eye on this one and let her know when he wakes up. And he just did.”

“So get going before this one decides  having an overdramatic recovery is a good thing,” Lexi countered playfully.

She ushered him out before he could protest further. Scott sighed, then looked around. Sara had been so busy the last couple of hours he had lost track of her and couldn’t remember the quick list she had given him earlier. He climbed the ladder to the main level and headed for engineering.  

He stopped short when he heard voices above them.  Sara was the owner of one, and it took him a moment to recognize Harry’s due to the low static in the background.

“ _Look, I don’t mean to ‘Dad’ you too hard, but… the important thing is that you two are okay. And our… sort of -agreement was that he’d come back if something happened that was in your control. Someone trying to take out you or Vidal doesn’t qualify.”_

So him being there had been a bit of a ploy. He wasn’t at all surprised. He wanted to be offended, but the fact that he was there, in on the action, made all the difference. He could deal with being duped. He started up the ramp.

Sara was curled up on one of the benches, back to him, facing the projection of Harry. “I know, I just… I think this life is finally catching up to me. It’s barely been a year, I got thrown into this, almost died three times, _did_ die once, almost got Scott killed as collateral damage, same thing with the crew multiple times, and now… that could’ve been Scott earlier today, and then I start thinking _that_ way and realize how fucking selfish that is because I’m arguably thinking it’s a good thing that Gil got hurt over Scott, and… it’s Gil! If I lost Gil I’d be just as wrecked, and-“  

Scott flinched. She sounded wrecked. She had every right to, but he hadn’t heard her so upset in a long while. He continued on his way up.

 _“Look kiddo, if it’s one thing that every single person around you knows, it’s that you care about people endlessly and equally. We know you don’t play favorites, never have, never will_.”

Scott’s shoe gave a tell-tale creek and Sara turned.

Scott smiled apologetically and waved, then walked over to sit beside her. He nudged her knee with his, and she leaned into him.

“Scott, good to see you,” Harry greeted.

“Same to you, Doc.”

The pair of them immediately turned when they heard two people hurrying up the ramp. One set of footprints was quick and quiet, the other set was distinctly krogan. They turned around.

Reyes popped into view with Drack directly behind him. Reyes looked hyper-aware, and Drack looked ready to punch the pirate at a moment’s notice.

Sara glanced at the hologram of Harry. “Alright, thanks for the chat, Dad, bye-“

“ _‘Dad’? Wha-_ “

She powered off the vid-call before Harry could finish.

Reyes looked from Sara, to Scott, to the hologram, then back. He looked apologetic before he squared his shoulders.  “We’ve got a problem,” he announced, “A Kaetus-shaped problem.”

“What does that mean?” Sara asked after a moment- just as something flashed directly behind her, making the ship’s window pulsed with light for a moment.

She and Scott ducked on instinct, then stopped to peek around the edge of the window to investigate.

Sure enough, Kaetus was out on the docks, sniper rifle pointed directly at the window.

Sara was just about to wonder what the Hell Kaetus’ plan had been since anything from a sniper rifle could never so much as make a dent in the window, when she realized failing probably was his point. 

Sure enough, Kaetus slung the rifle over his shoulder and continued to stare up at them.

“So… he wants to talk, or he just wants me in a better position to shoot me. Great,” Sara sighed. She clapped her hands on her knees, then stood up. “Scott, if this doesn’t go well, you and Gil can take what you want of my stuff, Jaal gets Jim and Bobo, Suvi gets all the science-related stuff I have, and Kallo gets the Tempest itself.”

“Wha- like Hell you’re going out there! The guy’s already got an advantage.”

“Yeah, and somehow he made it through all of ours, so…” she trailed off. It was meant to be a throwaway comment until she realized just how deep that actually went. _If Kaetus got passed their protection, they were either all dead, or…no_. No. Still, her eyes flicked to Reyes for a moment too long, and she felt a pang of guilt when he seemed to catch on and looked about as genuinely hurt as she had ever seen him- including their odd break-up.

 “We might be done, but I wouldn’t sell you out, let alone endanger you. You know that.” He said it as a statement, but she took it as a plea.

“Tempting as saying otherwise is, he’s right,” Drack cut in. “I’ve been with him the whole time. He didn’t make contact with anybody.”

She looked from Drack back to Reyes, who still had that damned look. She concealed a groan and made a mental note to stop being so influenced by facial expressions of all things. “Keema…?” she said quietly. Her stomach twisted.

Reyes shook his head. “It’s possible, but I… she…”  he trailed off and rubbed his neck.

Sara reached over and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Check on her when I’m out there, just in case.”

Scott finally cut back in, “You’re not going out there!” he repeated. “Or if you are, I’m coming with you.”

“Hell. No,” Sara finished.

“He can see your backup if they’re next to you. He can’t see a sniper,” Reyes offered. Scott looked at him and nodded pointedly.

“ _Someone not seeing a sniper_ is what got us into this mess in the first place,” she replied pointedly.

Scott looked between them again, and when Reyes clenched his jaw and his posture tensed up, Scott backed away again. He was starting to realize that concerning the pair he was with, well, the entire crew… there were cans of worms that he didn’t even want to think about opening just yet. He snapped out of the realization when he realized Sara’s spot she had been in was suddenly vacant. “Wha-“ he glanced to the side and saw Sara already halfway down the stairs. “Hold up!”

Reyes was already a step ahead of him, and he took it as a victory. That was, until all Reyes did was grab her arm, take a small pistol from some little hidden pocket at the base of his jacket on his belt (how had people missed that?) and shoved it into the side of her waistband. By the time he had finished the motion Drack had finished closing the distance between them. He put his hands up, flicked his fingers towards Sara’s hip, then put them up again.

Sara finally realized what he had done and frowned at him.

Reyes shrugged. “I like my people going into a situation more than half blind. He knows you’re a quick draw. You’ve got a short range gun now. He doesn’t.”

“I’m not your people,” Sara replied quickly. Still, she gave his cheek a quick smack in return, not enough to hurt, but enough to make an additional unspoken point. She turned and hurried down the ramp .

Scott groaned and went to follow her, only to have Reyes put his arm out to block him. “Look man, I know you guys had a thing and you wanna look out for her, but that’s _my sister_ and-“

Reyes laughed. “From my understanding, Scott, you have a knack of ruining plans just by being yourself, granted, accidentally. Me, on the other hand, I’m just a trickerous bastard. Leave this to m-“

Drack darted forward again, too quick for Reyes to register. The krogan slammed his forehead against the back of Reyes’, and the man crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Scott jumped back, and found himself looking between them again. After a moment, he motioned wildly between them. “What the FUCK?!”  he blurted.

Drack shrugged. “One, that was a long time coming, believe me. Two, yeah, you complicated that bit with the Archon before, but he’d make things worse in this case.”

“So… do we…?” Scott began.

“Yeah, we follow, but keep out of sight and on the ship near the airlock. We hear trouble, that’s when we go in, you get me?”

Scott nodded. “Yeah, I get you.”

“Good. Then let’s get going.”

“Right.”

* * *

 

Sara edged down the Tempest’s plank slowly. She kept Kaetus in her line of vision, but tried to take in her surroundings as much as possible. There were several Collective members- the ones that had been on Tempest guard duty, dead on the ground.

So Kaetus had dropped them all and then just casually shot the window to make a point. There was no doubt about that now.

She finished her descent and stopped a matter of feet from Kaetus. “What do you want?”

“For you to stop being a thorn in my side.”

“That doesn’t help-“

“I hacked into your communications.  Your lover implicated me in the attempt on your life. Tempting as it is, it wasn’t me. And I will not be framed by the Collective or Initiative.”

Sara scoffed. “Why the Hell would we frame you? You were already in jail for being a tyrant to these people.”

“Like Reyes is any better,” Kaetus snapped.

“Do you have a point, Kaetus? You wanna kill me, kill me.”

He sneered and advanced on her. “I will try, _Pathfinder_. But on my own terms. Not when I’m being set up. In the meantime… I’m clearing my name. And you’re going to help me.”

She squinted at him. “What makes you think I’ll agree just like that?”

Kaetus straightened out.

Sara saw him move his free hand away from his hip briefly and started to panic. When it turned out he was merely outstretching it- for a handshake- she realized after a moment, she still wasn’t sure how to react.

“You were a human of your word, Pathfinder. And I give you enough credit to know that you weren’t aware of Vidal’s plan until the last second. So you clear me, I play nice.”

Before she could react, Kaetus suddenly jerked like an electrical current had gone through him and immediately hit the ground.

Sara pulled the pistol from her belt and held it out, searching the crowd. When she spotted Sajax a few yards away, energy rifle in hand and still pointed at where Kaetus had been, she released the breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding.

Sajax made her way over. She gave Kaetus an experimental kick in the ribs, then sighed. “Always hated this guy, even pre-Uprising,” she mused. “You okay?”

“Yeah. He didn’t… he wasn’t pulling a gun,” Sara forced out.

“Then what the Hell was that about?” Sajax asked.

“A handshake. Still fuzzy on the ‘why’,” Sara answered. “What’re you doing here?”

“We were on a mission to clear out some of the last outlaws here. Kandros got an anonymous tip that you were in trouble and told us to find you. You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Thank you,”  Sara offered a weak thumbs up. “I… we’re not exactly sure about that ‘trouble’ either, but Kaetus just claimed he had nothing to do with it.”

“He’s threatened your life, and now he broke out of jail, found you and you believe him after that?” Sajax countered.

“Didn’t say that. But… we kind of have to hear him out. But… at least this time it’ll be on our terms.”

“If you say so,” Sajax shrugged. She nodded at Kaetus. “So… where are we bringing him? Back to the prison here?”

Sara stared at his body for a while. No. That wouldn’t do. He’d just get out again. And if he was telling the truth, whoever actually did the attack could get to him. They needed a home advantage, they needed decent facilities, and a controlled environment. They needed the Nexus. She flinched. There was no way Kaetus was going to like that, and there was bound to be tention with the whole Exile thing, but she’d take controlled danger over a madhouse any day. Nexus it was. She looked back at Kaetus. He wasn’t going to be a happy camper no matter what when he came to. She needed control over that sitation, too.  A moment later, she figured it out.  “No. We’re going back to the Nexus. We’re putting him in our airlock.”

“Oooh. Threatening. I like it,” Sajax replied. “Now, is that Vidal’s influence, or Kandros’?”

Sara froze and turned to her.

Sajax smirked and crossed her arms over her chest.

Sara rolled her eyes. So even Apex was as meddlesome as her own people. “Shut up and get his legs.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

They hauled Kaetus up with a fair bit of difficulty and started to make their way to the ship.

Scott was the first to meet them at the ramp, and then upon seeing Kaetus unconcious, the new Turian he had never seen before, and Sara looking more inconvienienced than anything, he chose to keep his mouth shut again. He stared at the wall for a while, alarmed at how silent it was and wondering if the crew had just learned to go with it after a while.

And then, out of the silence:

“DRACK! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO REYES?!”

“How did you know it was me?!” Drack objected from another room.

“It’s ALWAYS you!”

Scott shook his head.  Madness. He had signed himself up for madness.

At least this time he was low-key intrigued.


End file.
